k 


REESE  LIBRARY 


JNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 
Class  No. 


U u u-~Ut^K U— L? 


■«&*# 


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ALCOHOL 

A  DANGEROUS  AND  UNNECESSARY  MEDICINE 
HOW  AND  WHY 

What  Medical  Writers  Say 

BY 

MRS.  MARTHA  M.  ALLEN 

Superintendent  of  the  Department  of  Non-Alcoholic  Medication  for  the 
National  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union 


Norwich,  Conn. 

CHAS.  C.  HASKELL  &  SON 

L.  N.  Fowler  &  Co.,  7  Imperial  Arcade 

LUDGATE  CIRCUS,  LONDON 
1900 


Copyright,  1900,  by 
CHAS.  C.  HASKELL  &  SON 


REGISTERED  AT  STATIONERS'  HALL,  LONDON,  ENGLAND 


A II  rights  reserved 


Printed  in  U.  S.  A  merica 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

5 
9 

21 

28 

37 


Introduction         .  ... 

I.  History  of  the  Study  of  Alcohol 
II.  The  W.  C.  T.   U.  in  Opposition  to  the 
Medical  Use  of  Alcohol 
(jjjj  Alcohol  as  a  Producer  of  Disease 
IV.  Temperance  Hospitals,  and  Their  Meth- 
ods of  Treatment     .... 

^C  (fy  Effects  of  Alcohol  Upon  the  Human 

Body    .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .58 

VI.  Alcohol  as  a  Medicine     ....      96 

VII.  Alcohol  in  Pharmacy        .        .        .        .131 

VIII.  Diseases     and     Their     Non-Alcoholic 

Treatment 140 

IX.  Alcohol  and  Nursing  Mothers       .        .    234 
X.  Comparative     Death-Rates    With    and 

Without  the  Use  of  Alcohol     .        .    247 
XI.  Reasons    Why    Alcohol    is    Dangerous 

as  Medicine        .        .        .        .        .  262 

XII.  Reasons  Why  Doctors    Still  Prescribe 

Alcoholics 291 

XIII.  Alcoholic  Proprietary  Medicines         .    299 

XIV.  "  Drugging" 335 

XV.  Testimonies  of  Physicians  Against  the 

Medical  Use  of  Alcohol       .        .        .     356 
XVI.  Two  Great  Leaders  in  Medical  Temper- 
ance     392 

XVII.  Medical  Temperance  Societies        .        .    399 
XVIII.  Miscellaneous      ....        .        .    402 


95309 


INTRODUCTION. 

This  book  is  the  outcome  of  many  years  of 
study.  With  the  exception  of  a  few  quotations, 
none  of  the  material  has  ever  before  appeared  in 
any  book.  The  writer  has  been  indebted  for  years 
past  to  many  of  the  physicians  mentioned  in  the 
following  pages  for  copies  of  pamphlets  and  maga- 
zines, and  for  newspaper  articles,  bearing  upon  the 
medical  study  of  alcohol.  Indeed,  had  it  not  been 
for  the  kindly  counsels  and  hearty  co-operation  of 
physicians,  she  could  never  have  accomplished  all 
that  was  laid  upon  her  to  do  as  a  state  and  national 
superintendent  of  Non-Alcoholic  Medication  for 
the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union.  She 
is  also  under  obligation  for  helps  received  from  the 
secretaries  of  several  State  Boards  of  Health,  and 
from  eminent  chemists  and  pharmacists. 

The  object  of  the  book  is  to  put  into  the  hands 
of  the  people  a  statement  of  the  views  regarding 
the  medical  properties  of  alcohol  held  by  those 
physicians  who  make  little,  or  no  use  of  this  drug. 
In  most  cases  their  views  are  given   in  their  own 

5 


O  INTRODUCTION. 

language,  so  that  the  book  is,  of  necessity,  largely 
a  compilation. 

It  is  hoped  that  while  the  laity  may  be  glad  to 
peruse  these  pages  because  of  the  very  useful  and 
interesting  information  to  be  obtained  from  them, 
the  medical  profession,  also,  maybe  pleased  to  find, 
in  brief  form,  the  teachings  of  some  of  their  most 
distinguished  brethren  upon  a  question  now  fre- 
quently up  for  discussion  in  society  meetings. 

The  writer  does  not  presume  to  set  forth  her 
own  opinions  upon  a  question  which  is  still  a  sub- 
ject of  dispute  among/  the  members  of  a  learned 
profession ;  she  simply  culls  from  the  writings  of 
those  members  of  that  profession  who,  having 
made  thorough  examination  of  the  claims  of 
alcohol,  have  decided  that  this  drug,  as  ordinarily 
used,  is  more  harmful  than  beneficial,  and  that 
medical  practice  would  be  upon  a  higher  plane, 
were  it  driven  entirely  from  the  pharmacopoeia. 

The  writer  can  testify  from  experience  in  the 
rearing  of  three  children  that  alcohol  is  never  neces- 
sary as  a  household  remedy.  She  has  never  given 
this,  nor  any  otJier  drug  to  her  children,  and  has 
never  lost  a  single  night's  sleep  because  of  illness 
of  any  member  of  her  family.  Prevention  is  better 
than  cure.     Yet  she  thoroughly  believes  in  calling 


INTRODUCTION.  7 

in  a  competent  physician  in  case  of  any  illness  that 
seems  threatening.  But  she  would  not  allow  the 
use  of  alcohol  even  if  a  physician  prescribed  it, 
not  because  of  any  fanaticism,  but  for  the  reason 
that  she  believes  thoroughly  in  the  teachings  set 
forth  in  this  book.  It  was  the  stubborn  refusal  of 
some  cholera  patients  to  take  brandy,  and  their 
speedy  recovery,  which  led  to  the  experiments  in 
the  non-use  of  alcohol  in  England. 

If  all  temperance  people  would  utterly  refuse 
alcoholic  prescriptions,  and  abandon  the  home-use 
of  this  drug  in  all  its  forms,  the  cause  of  total 
abstinence  would  receive  such  an  impetus  as  it  has 
never  had  in  all  its  history. 

Note — Many  of  the  selections  in  this  book  are  from  reports  of  addresses 
given  at  medical  meetings,  hence  are  not  all  so  well  expressed  as  they  might 
be  if  written  by  the  physicians  themselves.  The  chapter  upon  "  Reasons 
Why  Alcohol  is  Dangerous  as  Medicine,"  is  rather  technical  in  language  for 
the  ordinary  reader,  but  will  be  prized  by  those  who  desire  to  know  some- 
thing of  the  thoroughness  with  which  scientific  men  are  pursuing  their 
researches  in  this  direction.  A  Standard  Dictionary  will  be  found  useful  in 
understanding  the  terminology.  The  chapter  upon  "  Diseases  and  their  Non- 
Alcoholic  Treatment,'1  is  not  in  any  measure  intended  to  take  the  place  of  a 
physician  when  one  is  needed,  nor  is  it  supposed  that  every  physician 
would  approve  all  points  of  treatment  mentioned.  The  chapter  is  intended 
simply  to  answer  questions  repeatedly  asked  as  to  methods  of  treatment  pur- 
sued by  eminent  and  successful  physicians  who  abjure  alcohol  as  a  remedy. 
It  is  worthy  of  careful  study. 

M.  M.  A. 
Syracuse,  N.  Y. 


ALCOHOL. 


CHAPTER  I. 

HISTORY   OF   THE   STUDY  OF  ALCOHOL. 

The  only  intoxicating  drinks  known  to  the 
ancients  were  wines  and  beers.  That  these  were 
used  for  medicinal  as  well  as  beverage  purposes  is 
evident  from  sacred  and  secular  history.  About 
the  tenth  century  of  the  Christian  era,  an  Arabian 
alchemist  discovered  the  art  of  distillation,  by 
which  the  active  principle  of  fermented  liquors 
could  be  drawn  off  and  separated.  To  the  spirit 
thus  produced  the  name  alcohol  was  given.  A 
plausible  reason  cited  for  this  name  is  that  the 
Arabian  for  evil  spirit  is  A I  ghole,  and  the  effects 
of  the  mysterious  liquid  upon  men  suggested 
demoniacal  possession. 

Medical  knowledge  at  this  time  was  very  limited  ; 
there  was  no  accurate  way  of  determining  the  real 
nature  of  the  new  substance,  nor  its  action  upon 
the  human  system.  It  could  be  judged  only  by  its 
seeming  effects.  As  these  were  pleasing,  it  was 
supposed  that  a  great  medical  discovery  had  been 
made.     The  alchemists  had  been  seeking  a  panacea 

9 


IO  ALCOHOL  AS  A    MEDICINE. 

for  all  the  ills  to  which  flesh  is  heir,  indeed  for 
something  which  would  enable  men  even  to  defy 
Death,  and  the  subtle  new  spirit  was  eagerly  pro- 
claimed as  the  long-looked-for  cure-all,  if  not  the 
.  very  aqua  vita  itself.  Physicians  introduced  it  to 
their  patients,  and  were  lavish  in  their  praises  of  its  j 
curative  powers.  The  following  is  quoted  from 
the  writings  of  Theoricus,  a  prominent  German  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  as  an  example  of  medical 
opinion  of  alcohol  in  his  day : — 

"  It  sloweth  age,  it  strengthened  youth,  it  helpeth  digestion, 
it  cutteth  phlegme,  it  cureth  the  hydropsia,  it  healeth  the 
strangurie,  it  pounces  the  stone,  it  expelleth  gravel,  it  keepeth 
the  head  from  whirling,  the  teeth  from  chattering,  and  the 
throat  from  rattling ;  it  keepeth  the  weasen  from  stiming,  the 
stomach  from  wambling,  and  the  heart  from  swelling;  it 
keepeth  the  hands  from  shivering,  the  sinews  from  shrinking, 
the  veins  from  crumbling,  the  bones  from  aching,  and  the 
marrow  from  soaking." 

Being  a  medicine,  which  very  rapidly  creates  a 
craving  for  itself,  the  demand  for  it  became 
enormous,  and,  as  time  advanced,  people  began 
prescribing  it  for  themselves,  until  its  use  both  as 
medicine  and  beverage  became  almost  general. 

If  the  medical  profession  is  responsible  for*  the 
wide-spread  belief  that  alcoholics  are  of  service  to 
mankind  both  as  food  and  medicine,  it  should  not 
be  forgotten  that  it  is  to  members  of  the  same 
profession  the  world  is  indebted  for  the  correction 
of  these  errors.  All  down  through  the  centuries 
there    have    been    physicians    who    doubted    and 


1 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  II 

opposed  its  claims  to  merit.  It  remained  for  the 
medical  science  of  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century  to  clearly  demonstrate  with  nicely  adjusted 
chemical  apparatus  and  appliances  the  wisdom  of 
these  doubts. 

The  scientific  study  of  the  effects  of  alcohol 
upon  the  human  body  began  about  fifty  years  ago. 
The  first  American  investigator  was  Dr.  Nathan  S. 
Davis,  of  Chicago,  of  whom  a  biographical  sketch  is 
given  elsewhere  in  this  book.  During  the  months 
of  May,  June,  July,  September  and  October,  1848, 
Dr.  Davis  published  in  the  Annalist,  a  monthly 
medical  journal  of  New  York  City,  a  series  of 
articles  controverting  the  universal  opinion  that 
alcoholic  drinks  are  warming,  strengthening  and 
nourishing.  In  1850  he  executed  an  extensive 
series  of  experiments  to  determine  tne  effects  of  a 
diet  exclusively  carbonaceous  (starch),  one  exclu- 
sively nitrogenous  (albumen),  and  alcohol  (brandy 
and  wine),  on  the  temperature  of  the  living  body ; 
on  the  quantity  of  carbonic  acid  exhaled ;  and  on 
the  circulation  of  the  blood.  The  results  of  these 
investigations  were  embodied  in  a  paper  read  before 
the  American  Medical  Association  in  May,  185 1. 
They  showed  that  alcohol,  instead  of  increasing 
animal  heat,  and  promoting  nutrition  and  strength, 
actually  produced  directly  opposite  effects,  reduc- 
ing temperature,  the  amount  of  carbonic  acid 
exhaled,  and  the  muscular  strength.  S  )  opoosed 
were   these   conclusions   to   the  general!  r   accepted 


12  ALCOHO.L  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

teachings  of  the  day  that  the  Association  did  not 
refer  the  paper  to  the  committee  of  publication. 
It  was  published  later  in  the  Northwestern  Medical 
and  Surgical  Journal. 

In  1854  Dr.  Davis  published  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  of  the  numerous  works  which  have  come 
from  his  prolific  pen  ;  it  was  entitled,  "  A  Lecture 
on  the  Effects  of  Alcoholic  Drinks  on  the  Human 
System,  and  the  Duty  of  Medical  Men  in  Relation 
Thereto."  This  lecture  was  delivered  in  Rush  Medi- 
cal College,  Chicago,  on  Christmas,  1854.  An 
appendix  to  the  work  contained  a  full  account  of 
the  series  of  original  experiments  which  the  author 
had  been  conducting  in  relation  to  the  effect  of 
alcohol  upon  respiration  and  animal  heat,  and  gave 
the  same  conclusions  as  those  presented  before 
the  A.  M.  A.  several  years  previously.  These 
experiments  laid  the  foundation  for  the  scientific 
study  of  the  physiological  effects  of  alcohol ;  and 
their  bearing  upon  the  study  of  the  temperance 
question  can  even  yet  scarcely  be  appreciated. 
They  were  the  first  experiments  which  showed 
conclusively  that  the  effect  of  alcohol  is  not  that  of 
a  stimulant,  but  the  opposite. 

In  1855  Prof.  R.  D.  Mussey,  of  Vermont,  read  an 
able  paper  before  the  American  Medical  Associa- 
tion upon  "  The  Effects  of  Alcohol  in  Health 
and  Disease,"  in  which  he  said,  "  So  long  as 
alcohol  .retains  its  place  among  sick  patients,  so 
long  will  there  be  drunkards." 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  1 3 

In  England  as  early  as  1802,  Dr.  Beddoes  pointed 
out  the  dangers  attendant  upon  the  social  and 
medical  use  of  intoxicating  drinks,  laying  stress 
upon  u  The  enfeebling  power  of  small  portions  of 
wine  regularly  drunk."  In  1829  Dr.  John  Cheyne, 
Physician  General  to  the  forces  in  Ireland  said  : — ■ 

"  The  benefits  which  have  been  supposed  from  their  liberal 
use  in  medicine,  and  especially  in  those  diseases  which  are 
vulgarly  supposed  to  depend  upon  mere  weakness,  have 
invested  these  agents  with  attributes  to  which  they  have  no 
claim,  and  hence,  as  we  physicians  no  longer  employ  them  as 
we  were  wont  to  do,  we  ought  not  to  rest  satisfied  with  the 
mere  acknowledgment  of  error,  but  we  ought  also  to  make 
every  retribution  in  our  power  for  having  so  long  upheld  one  of 
the  most  fatal  delusions  that  ever  took  possession  of  the  human 
mind." 

Dr.  Higginbotham,  F.  R.  S.,  of  Nottingham,  a 
keen  and  able  clinical  practitioner,  abandoned  the 
prescription  of  alcohol  in  1832,  saying  : — 

"  I  have  amply  tried  both  ways.  I  gave  alcohol  in  my  prac- 
tice for  twenty  years,  and  have  now  practiced  without  it  for  the 
last  thirty  years  or  more.  My  experience  is,  that  acute  disease 
is  more  readily  cured  without  it,  and  chronic  diseases  much 
I  more  manageable.  I  have  not  found  a  single  patient  injured 
•  by  the  disuse  of  alcohol,  or  a  constitution  requiring  it ;  indeed, 
to  find  either,  although  I  am  in  my  seventy-seventh  year,  I  would 
walk  fifty  miles  to  see  such  an  unnatural  phenomenon.  If  I 
ordered  or  allowed  alcohol  in  any  form,  either  as  food  or  as 
medicine,  to  a  patient,  I  should  certainly  do  it  with  a  felonious 
intent." — Ipswich  Tracts.  No.  346. 

In  1839  Dr.  Julius  Jeffreys  drew  up  a  medical 
declaration  which  was  signed  by  seventy-eight 
leaders  of  medicine  and  surgery.     This  document 


14  ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE. 

declared  the  opinion  to  be  erroneous  that  wine, 
beer  or  spirit  was  beneficial  to  health  ;  that  even  in 
the  most  moderate  doses,  alcoholic  drinks  did  no 
good.  This,  of  course,  dealt  only  with  the  beverage 
use  of  alcoholics.  In  1847  a  second  declaration 
was  originated,  signed  by  over  two  thousand  of  the 
most  eminent  physicians  and  surgeons.  This  also 
referred  only  to  liquor  as  a  beverage.  In  1871  a 
third  declaration,  signed  by  two  hundred  and  sixty- 
nine  of  the  leading  members  of  the  medical  profes- 
sion was  published  in  the  London  Times. 
This  declaration  was  in  part  as  follows : — 

"  As  it  is  believed  that  the  inconsiderate  prescription  of  large 
quantities  of  alcoholic  liquids  by  medical  men  for  their  patients 
has  given  rise,  in  many  instances,  to  the  formation  of  intemper- 
ate habits,  the  undersigned,  while  unable  to  abandon  the  use 
of  alcohol  in  the  treatment  of  certain  cases  of  disease,  are  yet 
of  opinion  that  no  medical  practitioner  should  prescribe  it  with- 
out a  sense  of  grave  responsibility. 

"  They  are  also  of  opinion  that  many  people  immensely 
exaggerate  the  value  of  alcohol  as  an  article  of  diet,  and  they 
hold  that  every  medical  practitioner  is  bound  to  exert  his 
utmost  influence  to  inculcate  habits  of  great  moderation  in  the 
use  of  alcoholic  liquids." 

In  the  same  year  the  American  Medical  Associa- 
tion passed  a  resolution  that  "  alcohol  should  be 
classed  with  other  powerful  drugs,  and  when  pre- 
scribed medically,  it  should  be  done  with  conscien- 
tious caution,  and  a  sense  of  great  responsibility." 

The  physicians  of  New  York,  Brooklyn  and 
vicinity  not  long  afterward  published  a  declaration 


ALCOHOL    AS   A    MEDICINE.  15 

practically  the  same  as  that  of  the  A.  M.  A.,  add- 
ing :  "  We  are  of  opinion  that  the  use  of  alco- 
holic liquor  as  a  beverage  is  productive  of  a  large 
amount  of  physical  disease." 

The  publication  of  these  later  declarations  was 
the  beginning  of  a  marked  change  in  the  medical 
use  of  alcohol. 

In  England  the  scientific  temperance  movement 
began  with  Dr.  B.  W.  Richardson,  afterwards 
knighted  by  Queen  Victoria  for  his  great  services 
to  humanity  as  a  medical  philanthropist.  Dr. 
Richardson's  success  in  bringing  before  physicians 
the  remarkable  medicinal  agent  known  as  nitrite  of 
amyl,  led  to  a  request  from  the  British  Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Science  that  he  investigate 
other  chemical  substances.  The  result  was  that 
several  years  of  study,  beginning  with  1863,  were 
given  to  the  physiological  effects  of  various  alco- 
hols, ethylic  alcohol,  which  is  the  active  principle  in 
wines,  beers  and  other  intoxicating  drinks,  receiv- 
ing special  attention. 

The  following  is  taken  from  his  "  Results  of 
Researches  on  Alcohol  "  : — 

"  In  my  hands  ethylic  alcohol  and  other  bodies  of  the  same 
group ;  viz.  methylic,  propylic,  butylic,  and  amylic  alcohols 
were  tested  purely  from  the  physiological  point  of  view.  They 
were  tested  exclusively  as  chemical  substances  apart  from  any 
question  as  to  their  general  use  and  employment,  and  free 
from  all  bias  for  or  against  their  influence  on  mankind  for 
good  or  for  evil.  « 


l6  ALCOHOL  AS  A    MEDICINE. 

"  The  method  of  research  that  was  pursued  was  the  same 
that  had  been  followed  in  respect  to  nitrite  of  amyl,  chloroform, 
ether,  and  other  chemical  substances,  and  it  was  in  the  follow- 
ing order :  First,  the  mode  in  which  living  bodies  would  take 
up  or  absorb  the  substance  was  considered.  This  settled,  the 
quantity  necessary  to  produce  a  decided  physiological  change 
was  ascertained,  and  was  estimated  in  relation  to  the  weight  of 
the  living  body  on  which  the  observation  was  made.  After 
these  facts  were  ascertained  the  special  action  of  the  agent  was 
investigated  on  the  blood,  on  the  motion  of  the  heart,  on  the 
respiration,  on  the  minute  circulation  of  the  blood,  on  the 
digestive  organs,  on  the  secreting  and  excreting  organs,  on  the 
nervous  system  and  brain,  on  the  animal  temperature  and  on 
the  muscular  activity.  By  these  processes  of  inquiry,  each 
specially  carried  out,  I  was  enabled  to  test  fairly  the  action  of 
the  different  chemical  agents  that  came  before  me.     ***** 

"  The  results  of  these  researches  were  that  I  learned  purely 
by  experimental  observation  that,  in  its  action  on  the  living 
body,  alcohol  deranges  the  constitution  of  the  blood ;  unduly 
excites  the  heart  and  respiration ;  paralyzes  the  minute  blood- 
vessels ;  disturbs  the  regularity  of  nervous  action  ;  lowers  the 
animal  temperature,  and  lessens  the  muscular  power. 

"  Such,  independent  of  any  prejudice  of  party  or  influence 
of  sentiment,  are  the  unanswerable  teachings  of  the  sternest  of 
all  evidences,  the  evidences  of  experiment,  of  natural  fact 
revealed  to  man  by  testing  of  natural  phenomena." 

When  Dr.  Richardson  reported  to  the  Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Science  the  results  of  his 
researches  so  at  variance  with  commonly  accepted 
ideas,  the  Association  was  as  incredulous  as  the 
American  Medical  Association  had  been  in  1 85 1 
when  Dr.  Davis  gave  a  similar  report,  and  Dr.  Rich- 
ardson's paper  was  returned  to  him  for  correction. 


ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE.  1 7 

It  should  be  stated  here  that  Dr.  Richardson 
was  not  a  total  abstainer  when  he  began  his  study 
of  the  effects  of  alcohol,  but  became  an  ardent 
and  enthusiastic  advocate  of  total  abstinence,  and 
later  of  non-alcoholic  medication,  because  of  what  he 
learned  by  his  experiments  with  this  drug.  He 
was  the  first  to  suggest  that  scientific  temperance 
be  taught  in  the  public  schools,  and  he  prepared  the 
first  text-book  ever  published  for  this  purpose.  In 
1874  he  delivered  his  famous  "Cantor  Lectures  on 
Alcohol,"  by  request  of  the  Society  of  Arts.  This 
series  of  lectures  created  a  sensation,  being  attended 
by  crowds  of  people,  as  it  was  the  first  time  that  any 
physician  of  eminence  had  spoken  from  experi- 
mental evidence  in  favor  of  total  abstinence. 

The  agitation  begotten  in  medical  circles  by  the 
discussion  of  Dr.  Richardson's  researches  upon 
alcohol  led  to  extensive  experimenting  upon  the 
same  line  by  scientists  of  England,  Continental 
Europe  and  America.  The  efforts  of  the  National 
Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  of  the 
United  States,  led  by  that  intrepid  woman,  Mrs. 
Mary  H.  Hunt,  to  introduce  scientific  temperance 
instruction  into  public  schools  gave  impetus  to  the 
study  in  this  country.  The  call  for  text-books 
caused  publishers  to  request  professors  in  medical 
colleges  to  make  minute  research  into  the  nature 
and  effects  of  alcohol,  that  the  demands  of  the  new 
educational  law  might  be  met.  The  bitter  opposi- 
tion to  these  temperance  education  laws  was  a  great 


l8  ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE. 

stimulant  to  the  scientific  study  of  alcohol,  for  it  was 
hoped  by  many  that  the  teachings  regarding  the 
deleterious  effects  of  alcohol  might  be  proved  incor- 
rect. Unfortunately  for  the  lovers  of  the  bibulous, 
the  proof  was  all  the  other  way  ;  great  medical  men 
could  not  be  bought  by  distillers  or  brewers  to  tell 
anything  but  the  truth,  and  the  truth  of  experimental 
research  was  all  against  alcohol.  The  text-books  en- 
dorsed by  Mrs.  Hunt  and  her  advisory  committee 
being  assailed  again  and  again  as  containing  errone- 
ous teaching,  were  finally,  in  1897,  submitted  to  an 
examining  committee  of  medical  experts,  nearly  all  of 
whom  were  connected  with  medical  colleges.  This 
committee  consisted  of  Dr.  N.  S.  Davis,  Sr.,  of  Chi- 
cago, 111. ;  Dr.  Leartus  Connor,  of  Detroit,  Michigan ; 
Dr.  Henry  Q.  Marcy,  of  Boston,  Mass. ;  Dr.  E.  E. 
Montgomery,  of  Philadelphia,  Pa.  ;  Dr.  Henry  D. 
Holton,  of  Brattleboro,  Vt.  ;  and  Dr.  George  F. 
Shrady,  of  New  York  City.  From  their  reports 
upon  the  books  the  following  is  culled  : — 

*  I  find  no  errors  in  the  teaching  of  any  of  them  on  this 
subject." 

"  No  statement  was  found  at  variance  with  the  most  reliable 
studies  of  especially  competent  investigators." 

"  I  was  asked  to  point  out  any  errors  in  these  books  which 
need  correcting.     I  find  no  such  errors." 

"  I  find  their  teaching  completely  in  accordance  with  the 
facts  determined  through  scientific  experimentation  and  investi- 
gation." 

"  I  find  them  to  be  in  substantial  accord  with  the  results  of 
the  latest  scientific  investigations." 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  19 

Dr.  Baer,  of  Berlin,  Germany,  the  foremost  Euro- 
pean specialist  on  the  subject  treated  in  these  text- 
books, has  recently  subjected  the  books  to  rigid 
examination.     He  says  in  his  report  upon  them  : — 

"  On  the  basis  of  the  examination  I  have  made  I  can  assert 
that  the  above  mentioned  school  text-books,  (the  endorsed 
physiologies),  in  respect  to  their  statements  regarding  alcoholic 
drinks  contain  no  teachings  which  are  not  in  harmony  with  the 
attitude  of  strict  science." 

The  testimony  of  these  experts  shows  that  the 
results  of  the  investigations  made  years  ago  by  Dr. 
N.  S.  Davis  and  Dr.  Richardson,  received  then  with 
so  much  incredulity,  are  now  held  as  scientific 
truths  by  the  great  leaders  of  the  medical  profes- 
sion, for  the  matter  relating  to  alcohol  contained  in 
the  endorsed  school  physiologies  is  in -strict  har- 
mony with  the  findings  of  these  pioneer  investi- 
gators. 

The  school  text-books  deal  exclusively  with  the 
effects  of  alcohol  used  as  a  beverage ;  for  obvious 
reasons  this  is  all  they  can  do.  But  as  intoxicating 
drinks  have  been  generally  supposed  to  contain 
great  virtue  as  remedial  agents,  this  phase  of  their 
nature  and  effects  has  not  been  overlooked  by  those 
pursuing  inquiries  concerning  them.  While  full 
agreement  has  not  yet  been  reached  by  experts  as 
to  the  value  of  alcoholic  liquids  as  medicines,  it  is 
noteworthy  that  some  of  the  most  eminent  investi- 
gators were  led  to  drop  alcohol  from  their  pharma- 


20  ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE. 

ceutical  outfit,  and  the  remainder  to  admit  that  its 
sphere  of  usefulness  is  extremely  limited. 

There  are  now  medical  colleges  of  high  standing 
where  students  are  advised  against  the  use  of  alco- 
hol as  a  remedy ;  hospitals  are  gradually  using  it 
less  and  less,  some  entirely  discarding  it ;  and  many 
progressive  physicians,  while  saying  nothing  as  to 
their  position  upon  the  alcohol  question,  yet  show 
their  lack  of  faith  in  this  drug  by  ignoring  it  unless 
patients  or  their  friends  desire  it. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE   WOMANS  CHRISTIAN   TEMPERANCE   UNION    IN 
OPPOSITION  TO  ALCOHOL  AS  MEDICINE. 

When  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  was  first  organized  there 
was  no  thought  among  its  members  of  antagonizing 
the  use  of  alcohol  in  medicine.  One  almost  im- 
mediate result  of  the  organization,  however,  was 
that  the  women  began  to  study  the  causes  of  in- 
ebriety, and  prominent  among  the  prevailing  influ- 
ences leading  to  drunkenness  they  found  the  medical 
use  of  alcoholics.  The  early  efforts  of  these  women 
were  chiefly  in  rescue  work  through  Gospel  temper- 
ance meetings,  and  visitations  of  jails  and  poor- 
houses.  By  reason  of  this  contact  with  the  effects 
of  inebriety  they  learned  many  sad  tales  of  ruined 
lives,  blighted  homes  and  lost  souls,  through  the 
appetite  for  strong  drink  created,  or  aroused,  by 
alcoholic  prescription.  They  saw,  as  time  passed, 
that  some  of  the  drunkards  reclaimed  through  their 
influence  lapsed  again  into  their  evil  habits  because 
a  little  beer,  or  wine,  "  for  the  stomach's  sake,"  or 
some  other  sake,  had  been  advised  them.  Some  of 
the  workers  had  this  trouble  in  their  own  homes, 
husband,  son  or  other  relative  enslaved  to  alcohol 
through  prescription  in  disease.     Is  it  any  wonder 

21 


22  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

that  women  of  the  spirit  of  the  Crusaders,  having 
once  had  their  attention  thoroughly  aroused  to  the 
danger  of  alcohol  in  medicine,  should  begin  to  ex- 
amine this  stronghold  of  the  enemy  to  discover,  if 
possible,  whether  or  not,  his  fortress,  the  medicine- 
chest,  was  impregnable  ?  Greatly  to  their  joy  they 
found  that  the  medical  profession  was  not  a  unit  in 
commending  alcoholics  as  remedial  agencies,  that 
all  along  since  alcohol  came  into  common  use  there 
have  been  physicians  who  distrusted,  and  opposed 
it.  They  learned,  too,  that  some  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished physicians  of  America  and  of  England 
were  using  little  or  no  alcohol  in  their  practice,  and 
that  a  hospital  had  been  established  in  London, 
England,  which  was  clearly  demonstrating  the  su- 
periority of  non-alcoholic  medication  by  its  small 
death-rate  in  comparison  with  hospitals  using  al- 
cohol. 

This  knowledge  encouraged  those  possessing  it  so 
that  they  began  to  refuse  alcoholics  as  remedies  in 
their  own  households,  and  rarely  did  they  find 
physicians  unwilling  or  unable  to  supply  another 
agent  when  asked  to  do  so,  and  thousands  of  women 
can  now  testify  to  the  fact  of  having  recovered  from 
ill  health  without  the  wine,  beer  or  brandy  they 
were  advised  to  take.  So  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  discovered 
several  good  reasons  for  opposing  alcohol  in  medi- 
cine. 

i.  Its  liability  to  create  or  revive  an  uncontrollable  appetite. 

2.  A   considerable     number   of   the   leading    physicians   of 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  23 

America  and  of  Great   Britain   discard  it  from  their   list  of 
remedies,  considering  it  harmful  rather  than  helpful. 

3.  The  lessened  mortality  consequent  upon  its  entire  disuse 
demonstrated  by  the  London  Temperance  Hospital. 

4.  By  their  own  experience  they  knew  that  alcohol  is  not 
necessary  to  the  restoration  of  health,  nor  to  the  upbuilding  of 
strength. 

The  first  active  work  touching  the  medical  use  of 
alcohol  was  a  memorial  from  the  National  W.  C.  T. 
U.  to  the  International  Medical  Congress  of  1876, 
which  met  in  Washington,  D.  C.  This  memorial 
was  suggested  by  Miss  Frances  E.  Willard,  and  co- 
operated in  by  the  National  Temperance  Society. 
It  asked  for  a  deliverance  from  the  Congress  upon 
alcohol  as  a  food  and  as  a  medicine.     \ 

The  Congress  was  divided  into  sections  for  the 
more  thorough  discussion  of  the  various  topics. 
Upon  the  program  was  a  paper  on  "  The  Therapeu- 
tic Value  of  Alcohol  as  Food,  and  as  a  Medicine," 
by  Ezra  M.  Hunt,  M.  D.,  delegate  from  the  New 
Jersey  Medical  Society.  This  paper  was  read  before 
the  "  Section  on  Medicine,"  and,  after  earnest  dis- 
cussion, the  conclusions  of  the  author' were  adopted 
"quite  unanimously"  as  the  sentiments  of  the  Sec- 
tion on  Medicine.  As  such  they  were  reported  for 
acceptance  to  the  General  Congress,  and  by  it 
ordered  to  be  transmitted  as  a  reply  to  the  memori- 
alists. 

The  report  was  published  in  full  by  the  National 
Temperance  Society,  and  may  be  obtained  from  it 


24  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

in  paper  binding  for  twenty-five  cents.  As  it  makes 
a  book  of  137  pages  the  conclusions  only  will  be 
quoted  here.     They  are  as  follows  : — 

1.  "  Alcohol  is  not  shown  to  have  a  definite  food  value  by  any 
of  the  usual  methods  of  chemical  analysis  or  physiological  inves- 
tigation. 

2.  "  Its  use  as  a  medicine  is  chiefly  that  of  a  cardiac  stimulant, 
and  often  admits  of  substitution. 

3.  "  As  a  medicine  it  is  not  well  fitted  for  self-prescription  by 
the  laity,  and  the  medical  profession  is  not  accountable  for  such 
administration,  or  for  the  enormous  evil  arising  therefrom. 

4.  "  The  purity  of  alcoholic  liquors  is  in  general  not  as  well 
assured  as  that  of  articles  used  for  medicine  should  be.  The 
various  mixtures  when  used  as  medicine  should  have  definite 
and  known  composition,  and  should  not  be  interchanged  pro- 
miscuously." 

It  is  matter  for  sincere  regret  that  this  deliverance 
was  not,  in  some  way,  brought  prominently  before 
every  physician  in  the  land.  There  are,  doubtless, 
thousands  of  physicians  who  never  heard  of  it,  and, 
consequently  have  never  been  influenced  by  it  to 
doubt  the  utility  of  the  popular  brandy  bottle. 

In  1883  Mrs.  Mary  Towne  Burt,  President  of 
New  York  State  W.  C.  T.  U.,  in  her  annual  address, 
suggested  that  a  department  of  work  be  created  to 
endeavor  to  induce  physicians  to  not  prescribe 
alcohol,  unless  in  such  cases  as  allowed  of  the  use  of 
no  other  agent.  Mrs.  (Rev.)  J.  Butler,  of  Fairport, 
was  the  first  superintendent  of  this  department, 
which  was  named,  "  Influencing  Physicians  to  not 
Prescribe   Alcoholics    as  Medicines."     Mrs.  Butler 


ALCOHOL  AS  A    MEDICINE.  2$ 

was  succeeded  in  1887,  by  Mrs.  E.  G.  Moore  of 
Medina,  who  had  the  subject  presented  before 
several  medical  associations.  In  1888  Dr.  Susan  A. 
Everett  was  appointed,  and  in  1889  Mrs.  Martha  M. 
Allen,  who  has  since  held  the  position.  Until  1890 
the  work  was  confined  mainly  to  circulating  a 
pledge  among  physicians  binding  them  to  use  alco- 
holics with  the  "  same  grave  sense  of  responsibility 
with  which  they  prescribe  other  poisons."  In  1890 
the  name  of  the  department  was  changed  to  "  Non- 
Alcoholic  Medication,"  and  the  "physicians'  pledge" 
abandoned.  The  method  of  work  then  adopted, 
and  since  pursued,  was  to  teach  the  members  of  the 
W.  C.  T.  U.,  and  through  them  the  public  in  general, 
the  reasons  assigned  by  successful  physicians  of 
prominence  for  abandoning  the  medicinal  use  of 
alcohol.  This  work  has  been  carried  on  by  means 
of  lectures,  articles  in  the  press,  study  in  meetings 
of  the  local  unions  and  by  the  distribution  of 
leaflets  and  pamphlets  written  by  physicians  and 
others. 

The  results  of  this  work  in  New  York  State  have 
been  very  encouraging.  While  for  a  long  time 
many  of  the  women  were  disposed  to  regard  the 
opposition  to  the  medical  use  of  alcohol  as  fanatical, 
as  they  became  familiar  with  the  scientific  basis  of 
the  matter  presented,  they  were  won  to  interest, 
and  then  to  enthusiasm.  At  present  this  is  the 
leading  department  in  interest  in  the  state.  Every 
woman  of  prominence  in  the  organization  is  thor- 


26  ALCOHOL  AS  A    MEDICINE. 

oughly  in  sympathy  with  the  work,  and  able  to 
give  an  intelligent  reason  for  her  disapproval  of 
alcoholics  as  remedies  in  disease.  It  is  worthy 
of  note  that  the  pledge  of  New  York  State  W.  C. 
T.  U.  does  not  include  the  words  "  as  a  beverage," 
though  no  one  is  refused  membership  on  account 
of  using  liquor  medicinally.  The  hope  is  always 
felt  that  such  members  will  soon  be  so  permeated 
with  the  general  knowledge  upon  this  question, 
that  they  will  abandon  even  the  old-fashioned 
camphor  bottle. 

The  National  W.  C.  T.  U.  adopted  this  depart- 
ment in  1884,  Mrs.  Caroline  A.  Leech,  of  Louisville, 
Ky.,  being  superintendent.  In  1889  Mrs.  Leech 
resigned  because  of  ill-health,  and  the  department 
was  dropped,  to  be  taken  up  again  in  1895  at  the 
earnest  solicitation  of  Mrs.  Mary  T.  Burt,  and  upon 
Mrs.  Burt's  recommendation,  Mrs.  Martha  M.  Allen, 
New  York's  superintendent,  was  made  national 
superintendent.  Since  her  appointment  she  has 
prepared  several  leaflets,  beside  plans  of  work,  for 
study  by  local  unions,  and  for  general  distribution. 
Her  latest  leaflet  is  upon  concealed  alcohol  in 
proprietary  medicines.  It  is  making  a  decided 
sensation,  so  surprising  are  its  revelations.  As 
counsellors  she  has  such  physicians  as  Dr.  N.  S. 
Davis,  Sr.,  of  Chicago,  Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg,  of  Battle 
Creek,  and  Dr.  T.  D.  Crothers,  of  Hartford.  Many 
other  physicians  have  given  her  great  assistance  in 
supplying     her    with    pamphlets    and    periodicals 


ALCOHOL   AS  A    MEDICINE.  27 

containing  information  upon  the  scientific  study  of 
alcohol. 

This  book  contains  the  teachings  which  the 
department  of  Non-Alcoholic  Medication  is  striving 
to  bring  before  the  attention  of  the  American  peo- 
ple. When  these  views  are  generally  accepted  the 
liquor-problem  will  be  well-nigh  solved. 


CHAPTER  III. 

ALCOHOL  AS  A  PRODUCER  OF  DISEASE. 

That  alcohol  is  a  poison  is  attested  by  all 
chemists  and  other  scientific  men  ;  taken  undiluted 
it  destroys  the  vitality  of  the  tissues  of  the  body 
with  which  it  comes  in  contact  as  readily  as  creosote, 
or  pure  carbolic  acid.  The  term  intoxicating 
applied  to  beverages  containing  it  refers  to  its 
poisonous  nature,  the  word  being  derived  from  the 
Greek  toxicon,  which  signifies  a  bow  or  an  arrow  ; 
the  barbarians  poisoned  their  arrows,  hence,  toxicnm 
in  Latin  was  used  to  signify  poison ;  from  this 
comes  the  English  term  toxicology,  which  is  the 
science  treating  of  poisons.  Druggists  in  selling 
proof  spirits  usually  label  the  bottle,  "  Poison." 
, Apart  from  the  testimony  of  science  in  regard  to 
its  poisonous  nature,  it  is  commonly  known  that 
large  doses  of  brandy  or  whisky  will  speedily  cause 
death,  particularly  in  those  unaccustomed  to  their 
use.  The  newspapers  frequently  contain  items 
regarding  the  death  of  children  who  have  had 
access  to  whisky,  and  drunk  freely  of  it.  Cases 
are  reported,  too,  of  men,  habituated  to  drink, 
who  after  tossing  off  several  glasses  of  brandy  at 
the  bar  of  a  saloon  have  suddenly  dropped  dead. 
28 


ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE.  2g 

Dr.  Mussey  says  : — 

"  A  poison  is  that  substance,  in  whatever  form  it  may  be, 
which,  when  applied  to  a  living  surface,  disconcerts  and  dis- 
turbs life's  healthy  movements.  It  is  altogether  distinct  from 
substances  which  are  in  their  nature  nutritious.  It  is  not 
capable  of  being  converted  into  food,  and  becoming  a  part  of 
the  living  organs.  We  all  know  that  proper  food  is  wrought 
into  our  bodies ;  the  action  of  animal  life  occasions  a  constant 
waste,  and  new  matter  has  to  be  taken  in,  which,  after  digestion, 
is  carried  into  the  blood,  and  then  changed ;  but  poison  is 
incapable  of  this.  It  may  indeed  be  mixed  with  nutritious  sub- 
stances, but  if  it  goes  into  the  blood,  it  is  thrown  off  as  soon  as 
the  system  can  accomplish  its  deliverance,  if  it  has  not  been 
too  far  enfeebled  by  the  influence  of  the  poison.  Such  a  poison 
is  alcohol — such  in  all  its  forms  mix  it  with  what  you  may." 

Dr.  Nathan  S.  Davis  said  in  an  address  given  in 


"  When  largely  diluted  with  water,  as  it  is  in  all  the  varieties 
of  fermented  and  distilled  liquids,  and  taken  into  the  stomach, 
it  is  rapidly  imbibed,  or  taken  up  by  the  capillary  vessels  and 
carried  into  the  venous  blood,  without  having  undergone  any 
digestion  or  change  in  the  stomach.  With  the  blood  it  is 
carried  to  every  part,  and  made  to  penetrate  every  tissue  of  the 
living  body,  where  it  has  been  detected  by  proper  chemical 
tests  as  unchanged  alcohol,  until  it  has  been  removed  through 
the  natural  process  of  elimination,  or  lost  its  identity  by 
molecular  combination  with  the  albuminous  elements  of  the 
blood  and  tissues,  for  which  it  has  a  strong  affinity. 

"The  most  varied  and  painstaking  experiments  of  chemists 
and  physiologists,  both  in  this  country  and  Europe,  have  shown 
conclusively  that  the  presence  of  alcohol  in  the  blood  dimin- 
ishes the  amount  of  oxygen  taken  up  through  the  air-cells  of 
the  lungs  ;  retards  the  molecular  and  metabolic  changes  of  both 


30  ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE. 

nutrition  and  waste  throughout  the  system  and  diminishes  the 
sensibility  and  action  of  the  nervous  structures  in  direct  propor- 
tion to  the  quantity  of  alcohol  present.  By  its  stronger  affinity 
for  water  and  albumen,  with  which  it  readily  unites  in  all  pro- 
portions, it  so  alters  the  hemaglobin  of  the  blood  as  to  lessen 
its  power  to  take  the  oxygen  from  the  air-cells  of  the  lungs  and 
carry  it  as  oxyhemaglobia  to  all  the  tissues  of  the  body ;  and  by 
the  same  affinity  it  retards  all  atomic  or  molecular  changes  in 
the  muscular,  secretory  and  nervous  structures  ;  and  in  the 
same  ratio  it  diminishes  the  elimination  of  carbon-dioxide,  phos- 
phates, heat  and  nerve  force.  In  other  words,  its  presence 
diminishes  all  the  physical  phenomena  of  life. 

"  I  say,  then,  that  from  the  facts  hitherto  adduced,  whether 
from  accurate  experimental  investigations  in  different  countries, 
from  the  pathological  results  developed  in  the  most  scientific 
societies,  from  the  most  reliable  statistics  of  sickness  and  mor- 
tality, as  influenced  by  occupations  and  social  habits,  or  from 
the  life  insurance  records  kept  on  a  uniform  basis  through 
periods  of  ten,  twenty,  thirty  or  even  forty  years,  it  is  clearly 
shown  that  alcohol  when  taken  into  the  human  system  not 
only  acts  upon  the  nervous  system,  perverting  its  sensibility,, 
and,  if  increased  in  quantity,  causing  intoxication  or  insensibil- 
ity, but  it  also,  even  in  small  quantities,  lessens  the  oxygena- 
tion and  decarbonization  of  the  blood  and  retards  the  molecular 
changes  in  the  structures  of  the  body.  When  these  effects  are 
continued  through  months  and  years,  as  in  the  most  temperate 
class  of  drinkers,  they  lead  to  permanent  structural  changes, 
most  prominently  in  the  liver,  kidneys,  stomach,  heart,  blood- 
vessels and  nerve  structures,  and  lessen  the  natural  duration 
of  life  in  the  aggregate  fro7n  ten  to  fifteen  years.  Conse- 
quently there  is  no  greater,  nor  more  destructive  error  existing 
in  the  public  mind  than  the  belief  that  the  use  of  fermented 
and  distilled  drinks  does  no  harm  so  long  as  they  do  not  in- 
toxicate. 

"  Another  popular  error  is  the  opinion  that  the  substitution 


ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE.  31 

of  the  different  varieties  of  beer  and  wine  in  the  place  of  dis- 
tilled liquors  promotes  temperance,  and  lessens  the  evil  effects 
of  alcohol  on  the  health  and  morals  of  those  who  use  them. 
Accurate  investigations  show  that  beer  and  wine  drinkers  gen- 
erally consume  more  alcohol  per  man  than  the  spirit  drinkers  ; 
and  while  they  are  not  as  often  intoxicated,  they  suffer  fully  as 
much  from  diseases  and  premature  death  as  do  those  who  use 
distilled  spirits.  Again,  the  beer  drinker  drinks  more  nearly 
every  day,  and  thereby  keeps  some  alcohol  in  his  blood  more 
constantly ;  while  a  large  percentage  of  spirit  drinkers  drink 
only  periodically,  leaving  considerable  intervals  of  abstinence, 
during  which  the  tissues  regain  nearly  their  natural  condition. 
The  more  constant  and  persistent  is  the  presence  of  alcohol 
in  the  blood  and  the  tissues,  even  in  moderate  quantity,  the 
more  certainly  does  it  lead  to  perverted  and  degenerative  changes 
in  the  tissues,  ending  in  renal  (kidney)  and  hepatic  (liver) 
dropsies,  cardiac  (heart)  failures,  gout,  apoplexy  and  pa- 
ra/ysis." 

Sir  B.  W.  Richardson  says : — 

\"  Alcohol  produces  many  diseases ;  and  it  constantly  hap- 
pens that  persons  die  of  diseases  which  have  their  origin  solely 
in  the  drinking  of  alcohol,  while  the  cause  itself  is  never  for  a 
moment  suspected.  A  man  may  say  quite  truthfully  that  he 
never  was  tipsy  in  the  whole  course  of  his  life ;  and  yet  it  is 
quite  possible  that  such  a  man  may  die  of  disease  caused  by 
the  alcohol  he  has  taken,  and  by  no  other  cause  whatever. 
This  is  one  of  the  most  dreadful  evils  of  alcohol,  that  it  kills 
insidiously,  as  if  it  were  doing  no  harm,  or  as  if  it  were  doing 
good,  while  it  is  destroying  lifey  Another  great  evil  of  it  is 
that  it  assails  so  many  different  parts  of  the  body.  It  hardly 
seems  credible  at  first  sight  that  the  same  agent  can  give  rise  to 
the  many  different  kinds  of  diseases  it  does  give  rise  to.  In 
fact,  the  universality  of  its  action  has  blinded  even  learned  men 
as  to  its  potency  for  destruction. 


32  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

"  Step  by  step,  however,  we  have  now  discovered  that  its 
modes  of  action  are  all  very  simple,  and  are  all  the  same  in 
character  ;  and  that  the  differences  that  have  been  and  are  seen 
in  different  persons  under  its  influence  are  due  mainly  to  the 
organs,  or  organ,  which  first  give  way  under  it.  Thus,  if  the 
stomach  gives  way  first,  we  say  that  the  person  has  indigestion 
or  dyspepsia,  or  failure  of  the  stomach ;  if  the  brain  gives  way 
first,  we  say  the  person  has  paralysis,  or  apoplexy,  or  brain  dis- 
ease ;  if  the  liver  gives  way  first,  we  say  the  man  has  liver  dis- 
ease, and  so  on. 

V  "  All  persons  who  indulge  much  in  any  form  of  alcoholic 
drink  are  troubled  with  indigestion.  When  they  wake  in  the 
morning  they  find  their  mouth  dry,  their  tongue  coated,  and 
their  appetite  bad.  In  course  of  time  they  become  confirmed 
'  dyspeptics,'  and  as  many  of  them  find  a  temporary  relief  from 
the  distress  at  the  stomach,  and  the  deficient  appetite  from 
which  they  suffer  by  taking  more  liquor,  they  increase  the  quan- 
tity taken,  and  so  make  matters  much  worse.  ***** 

"  There  are  a  great  number  of  diseases  caused  by  alcohol, 
some  of  which  are  known  by  terms  that  do  not  convey  to  the 
mind  what  really  has  been  the  cause  of  the  diseases."     They  are : 

(a)  Diseases  of  the  brain  and  nervous  system : 
indicated  by  such  names  as  apoplexy,  epilepsy,  pa- 
ralysis, vertigo,  softening  of  the  brain,  delirium  tre- 
mens, loss  of  memory  and  that  general  failure  of  the 
mental  power  called  dementia,  {b)  Diseases  of  the 
lungs :  one  form  of  consumption,  congestion  and 
subsequent  bronchitis,  (c)  Diseases  of  the  heart : 
irregular  beat,  feebleness  of  the  muscular  walls,  dila- 
tion, disease  of  the  valves,  (d)  Diseases  of  the  blood: 
scurvy,  dropsy,  separation  of  fibrine.  (e)  Diseases 
of  the  stomach :  feebleness  of  the  stomach  and  indi- 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  33 

gestion,  flatulency,  irritation  and  sometimes  inflam- 
mation. (/)  Diseases  of  the  bowels :  relaxation  or 
purging,  irritation,  (g)  Diseases  of  the  liver:  con- 
gestion, hardening  and  shrinking  cirrhosis.  (Ji). 
Diseases  of  the  kidneys  :  change  of  structure  into 
fatty  or  waxy-like  condition  and  other  changes  lead- 
ing to  dropsy,  (z)  Diseases  of  the  muscles :  fatty 
changes  in  the  muscles,  by  which  they  lose  their 
power  for  proper  active  contraction.  (/)  Diseases 
of  the  membranes  of  the  body  :  thickening  and  loss 
of  elasticity,  by  which  the  parts  wrapped  up  in  the 
membrane  are  impaired  for  use,  and  premature 
decay  is  induced. 

But  it  constantly  happens  that  when  deaths  from 
these  diseases  are  recorded  and  alcohol  has  been 
the  primary  cause,  some  other  cause  is  believed  to 
have  been  at  work. 

While  drinking  parents  by  virtue  of  a  strong  con- 
stitution sometimes  escape  the  penalty  of  their 
bibulous  habit,  it  is  not  uncommon  to  see  their 
children  suffering  from  some  disease  or  nervous 
weakness  such  as  is  caused  by  alcohol,  "  the  sins  of 
the  father  being  visited  upon  the  children." 

Erasmus  Darwin  says  upon  this  point : — 

"  It  is  remarkable  that  all  the  diseases  from  drinking  spiritu- 
ous or  fermented  liquors  are  liable  to  become  hereditary,  even 
to  the  third  generation,  gradually  increasing,  if  the  cause  be 
continued,  till  the  family  become  extinct." 

/  Prof.  Christison,  of  Edinburgh,  in  answer  to  in- 


34  ALCOHOL  AS  A    MEDICINE. 

quiries    from    the    Massachusetts    State    Board    of 
Health,  says  of  general  diseases  due  to  alcohol : — 

"  I  recognize  certain  diseases  which  originate  in  the  vice  of 
drunkenness  alone,  which  are  deliriuni  tremens,  cirrhosis  of  the 
liver,  many  cases  of  Bright's  disease  of  the  kidneys,  and  dipso- 
mania, or  insane  drunkenness. 

"  Then  I  recognize  many  other  diseases  in  regard  to  which 
excess  in  alcoholics  acts  as  a  powerful  predisposing  cause,  such 
as  gout,  gravel,  aneurism,  paralysis,  apoplexy,  epilepsy,  cystitis, 
premature  incontinence  of  urine,  erysipelas,  spreading  cellular 
inflammation,  tendency  of  wounds  and  sores  to  gangrene,  in- 
ability of  the  constitution  to  resist  the  attacks  of  epidemics.  I 
have  had  a  fearful  amount  of  experience  of  continued  fever  in 
our  infirmary  during  many  epidemics,  and  in  all  my  experience 
I  have  only  once  known  an  intemperate  man  of  forty  and  up- 
wards to  recover." 

Professor  Christison  also  claims  that  three-fourths, 
or  even  four-fifths,  of  Bright's  disease  in  Scotland  is 
produced  by  alcohol. 

Dr.  C.  Murchison,  in  speaking  of  alcohol  as  a  pre- 
ventive of  disease,  says  : — 

"  There  is  no  greater  error  than  to  imagine  that  a  liberal 
allowance  of  alcoholic  liquids  fortifies  the  system  against  con- 
tagious diseases." 

In  a  paper  read  before  the  Royal  Medical  and1 
Chirurgical  Society,  Oct.  22,  1872,  Dr.  W.  Dickin- 
son gave  the  following  conclusions  : — 

'*  Alcohol  causes  fatty  infiltration  and  fibrous  encroachments  ; 
it  engenders  tubercles ;  encourages  suppuration,  and  retards 
healing  ;  it  produces  untimely  atheroma  (a  form  of  fatty  degen- 
eration of  the  inner  coats  of  the  arteries),  invites  hemorrhage, 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  35 

and  anticipates  old  age.  The  most  constant  fatty  changes,  re- 
placement by  oil  of  the  material  of  epithelial  cells  and  muscular 
fibres,  though  probably  nearly  universal,  is  most  noticeable  in 
the  liver,  the  heart  and  the  kidneys.  Drijik  causes  tuberculo- 
sis, which  is  evident  not  only  in  the  lungs,  but  in  every  amena- 
able  organ." 

Dr.  William  Hargreaves  says  : — 

"  Brandy  is  not  a  prophylactic.  To  the  temperate  it  is  an 
active,  exciting  cause.  It  is  well  known  that  a  single  act  of 
intemperance  during  the  prevalence  of  cholera,  will  often  pro- 
duce a  fatal  attack.  The  sense  of  warmth  and  irritation 
(called  stimulation)  produced  by  alcoholic  liquors,  has  led  to 
the  erroneous  notion  that  they  may  prevent  cholera.  But  the 
contrary  we  have  seen  is  the  truth,  for  the  effects  of  alcoholics 
are  to  reduce  the  temperature  of  the  body,  and  instead  of 
stimulating,  they  narcotize,  and  reduce  the  life-forces,  and 
predispose  the  system  to  all  kinds  of  disease." 

The  following  testimonies  are  culled  from  the 
writings  of  eminent  physicians  : — 

4*»  Sir  Andrew  Clark,  M.  D.,  F.  R.  C.  P.,  London,  Physician  in 
Ordinary  to  the  Queen,  Senior  Physician  at  the  London 
Hospital:  "As  I  looked  at  the  hospital  wards  to-day,  and 
saw  that  seven  out  of  ten  owed  their  diseases  to  alcohol,  I 
could  but  lament  that  the  teaching  about  this  question  is  not 
more  direct,  more  decisive  and  more  home-thrusting.  ***** 
Can  I  say  to  you  any  words  stronger  than  these  of  the  terrible 
effects  of  alcohol?  When  I  think  of  this  I  am  disposed  to 
give  up  my  profession,  and  go  forth  upon  a  holy  crusade, 
preaching  to  all  men— Beware  of  this  ene7ny  of  the  race." 

Sir  William  Gull,  F.  R.  S.  (late  Physician  to  her  Majesty)  : 
"  I  should  say,  from  my  experience,  that  alcohol  is  the  most 
destructive  agent  that  we  are  aware  of  in  this  country.  I 
would  like  to  say  that  a  very  large  number  of  people  in  society 


$6  ALCOHOL  AS  A    MEDICINE. 

are  dying  day  by  day,  poisoned  by  alcohol,  but  not  supposed  to 
be  poisoned  by  it." 

Dr.  Abernethy  :  "  If  people  will  leave  off  drinking  alcohol, 
live  plainly,  and  take  very  little  medicine  they  will  find  that 
many  disorders  will  be  relieved  by  this  treatment  alone." 

Dr.  Forel,  of  the  University  of  Zurich,  Switzerland  :  "  Life 
is  considerably  shortened  by  the  use  of  alcohol  in  large  quanti- 
ties. But  a  moderate  consumption  of  the  ^ame  also  shortens 
life  by  an  average  of  five  to  six  years.  This  is  consistently  and 
unequivocally  seen  in  the  statistics  kept  for  thirty  years  by 
English  insurance  companies,  with  special  sections  for  ab- 
stainers. They  give  a  large  discount,  and  still  make  more 
profit,  as  not  nearly  so  many  deaths  occur  as  might  be  expected 
under  the  usual  calculations.  According  to  federal  statistics  in 
the  fifteen  largest  towns  of  Switzerland,  over  ten  per  cent,  of 
the  men  over  twenty  years  of  age  die  solely,  or  partly  of  alco- 
holism." 

Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg,  Battle  Creek,  Mich. :  "  Every  organ  feels 
the  effect  of  the  abuse  through  indulgence  in  alcohol,  and  no 
function  is  left  undisturbed.  By  degrees,  disordered  function, 
through  long  continuance  of  the  disturbance,  induces  tissue 
change.  The  most  common  form  of  organic  or  structural 
disease  due  to  alcohol  is  fatty  degeneration,  which  may  effect 
almost  every  organ  in  the  body.  *  *  *  *  *  No  class  of  persons 
are  so  subject  to  nervous  diseases  due  to  degeneration  of 
nerves  and  nerve-centres  as  drinkers.  Partial  or  general 
paralysis,  locomotor  ataxia,  epilepsy  and  a  host  of  other  nervous 
disorders,  are  directly  traceable  to  the  use  of  alcohol." 

One  of  the  visiting  physicians  of  Bellevue  Hos- 
pital, New  York,  states  that  at  least  two-thirds  of 
all  the  diseases  treated  there  originated  in  drink. 

Dr.  W.  A.  Hammond  :  "  It  is  of  all  causes  most  prolific  in 
exciting  derangements  of  the  brain,  the  spinal  cord,  and  the 


CHAPTER  IV. 
TEMPERANCE   HOSPITALS. 

THE  LONDON  TEMPERANCE  HOSPITAL. 

In  1865  Dr.  S.  Nicholls,  medical  officer  of  the 
Longford  Poor-law  Union,  published  a  report  of 
the  results  of  non-alcoholic  treatment  of' disease  as 
practiced  by  him  for  sixteen  years  in  the  institutions 
under  his  control.     The  figures  for  1865  were  : — 


ADMITTED. 

RECOVERED. 

DIED. 

Fever, 

142 

135 

7 

Scarlatina, 

33 

30 

3 

Small-pox, 

48 

47 

1 

Measles, 

8 

8 

0 

231  220  II 

The  treatment  was  altogether  without  wines, 
spirits  or  alcohol  in  any  form. 

The  death-rate  reported  by  Dr.  Nicholls  was  so 
small  that  some  of  the  more  observing  and  pro- 
gressive physicians  were  led  by  it  to  begin  similar 
experiments  in  the  disuse  of  alcohol  in  other  hospi- 
tals. Among  these  was  Dr.  James  Edmunds,  senior 
physician  at  the  Lying-in  Hospital,  London.  The 
experiments  continued  a  year  with  a  reduced  death- 

37 


38  ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE. 

rate  among  both  mothers  and  children.  But  the 
great  brewers  of  London,  who  contributed  largely 
to  the  support  of  this  hospital  raised  such  a  storm 
of  opposition  to  the  discontinuance  of  alcoholic 
liquors  that  the  experiments  had  to  be  abandoned. 

The  establishment  of  a  temperance  hospital  was 
now  suggested,  and  in  October,  1873,  a  temporary 
institution  was  opened  in  Gower  Street,  accommoda- 
ting only  seventeen  in-patients  at  one  time.  Later 
a  fine  site  was  secured  on  Hampstead  Road,  and  in 
1 88 1  the  east  wing  and  centre  were  opened  by  the 
Lord  Mayor  of  London.  In  1885  the  west  wing 
was  finished,  and  the  opening  ceremonies  conducted 
by  the  Bishop  of  London. 

At  the  time  of  the  launching  of  this  enterprise, 
wine  and  spirits  were  literally  "  poured  into  "  sick 
persons,  with  frightful  results.  Death-rates  were 
enormous.  The  success  of  the  Temperance  Hospi- 
tal has  no  doubt  had  much  to  do  in  modifying  this 
abuse.  Its  death-rate,  on  an  average,  has  been  only 
6  per  cent,  throughout  the  years  since  its  beginning. 
This  is  lower  than  that  of  any  other  general  hospi- 
tal in  London,  and  certainly  proves  conclusively 
that  alcohol  is  not  necessary  in  the  treatment  of 
disease.  The  physicians  connected  with  it  have 
been  men  of  eminence  in  the  profession,  such  as 
Dr.  James  Edmunds,  Dr.  J.  J.  Ridge  and  Sir  B. 
W.  Richardson. 

The  visiting  staff  is  not  compelled  to  pledge  dis- 
use of  alcohol,  but  is  required  to  report  if  it  is  used. 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  39 

During  all  these  years  it  has  been  given  only  seven- 
teen times,  then  almost  entirely  in  surgical  cases, 
and  in  nearly  all  of  these  a  fatal  result  proved  it  to 
be  useless.  The  patients  who  are  restored  to 
health  leave  without  having  had  aroused  or  im- 
planted in  them  a  desire  for  alcoholic  liquors, 
neither  have  they  been  taught  to  regard  them  as 
valuable  aids  to  the  recovery  of  health  and  strength. 
On  the  contrary,  there  have  been  many  who  have 
come  in,  suffering  from  this  delusion,  who  have  had 
it  thoroughly  dispelled,  both  by  their  own  experi- 
ence and  the  experience  of  their  fellow  patients. 

Sir  B.  W.  Richardson  took  charge  of  this  hospital 
from  1892  until  his  death  in  1897.  In  his  report  in 
1893  he  said: — 

"  I  remember  quite  well  when  according  to  custom,  I  should 
have  prescribed  alcohol  in  all  those  cases  that  were  not  actually 
inflammatory  (speaking  of  diseases  of  the  alimentary  system)  ; 
but  I  never  remember  having  seen  such  quick  and  sound 
recoveries  as  those  which  have  followed  the  non-alcoholic 
method." 

The  following  selection  showing  points  of  prac- 
tice in  this  hospital  is  taken  from  the  same  report : 

"  For  medicinal  purposes,  we  are  as  free  as  possible  from  all 
complexity.  We  use  glycerine  for  making  what  may  be  called 
our  tinctures,  and  in  my  clinique  I  am  introducing  a  series  of 
*  waters  ' — aqua  ferri,  aqua  chloroformi,  aqua  opii,  aqua  quinas, 
and  so  on — to  form  the  menstruums  of  other  active  drugs  when 
they  are  called  for.  I  also  follow  the  plan  of  having  the  medi- 
cines administered  with  a  free  quantity  of  water,  and  with  as 
accurate   a  dosage  as   can  be  obtained,  for  I  agree  with  Mr. 


40  ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE. 

Spender's  original  proposition  that  the  administration  of  medi- 
cines in  comparatively  small  and  frequent  doses  is  more 
effective  and  useful  than  the  more  common  plan  of  large  doses 
given  at  long  intervals. 

"  I  treat  many  cases  by  inhalation,  and  for  this  end  I  use 
oxygen  in  a  new"  and,  I  hope,  efficient  manner.  I  make  oxygen 
gas  a  medium  for  carrying  other  volatile  substances  that  admit 
of  being  inhaled  with  it.  The  mode  is  very  simple.  ***** 
In  the  pneumonic  and  bronchial  cases  the  treatment  has  been 
of  the  simple  and  sustaining  kind.  The  medicines  that  have 
been  given  during  the  acute  febrile  stages  have  been  chiefly 
liquor  ammonias  acetatis  and  carbonate  of  ammonia  in  small 
and  frequently  repeated  doses.  The  patients  have  all  been 
well  and  carefully  fed  on  the  milk  and  middle  diet  until  con- 
valescence was  declared.  In  some  of  the  more  extreme  in- 
stances, where  there  was  fear  of  collapse  from  separation  of 
fibrine  in  the  heart  or  pulmonary  artery,  ammonia  has  been 
given  freely  according  to  the  method  I  have,  for  so  many  years 
inculcated.  I  have  also  in  cases  of  depression  under  which 
fibrinous  separation  is  so  easily  developed,  lighted  on  a  mode 
of  administering  ammonia  which  combines  feeding  with  the 
medicine.  I  direct  that  a  three  or  five-grain  tabloid  of  bicar- 
bonate of  ammonia  shall  be  dissolved  in  a  cup  of  coffee  or 
of  coffee  with  milk,  and  be  taken  by  the  patient  in  that  man- 
ner. The  coffee  can  be  sweetened  with  sugar  if  that  is  desired 
by  the  patient,  and  the  ammonia  can  be  so  administered  with- 
out any  objectionable  taste  to  the  beverage.  After  what  is 
called  the  crisis  in  acute  pneumonia,  I  administer  very  little 
medicine  of  any  kind  ;  I  trust  rather  to  careful  feeding  with 
an  occasional  alterative  or  expectorant,  as  may  be  required. 
*****  I  am  satisfied  that  no  aid  I  could  have  derived  from 
alcoholic  stimulants,  as  they  are  called,  could  have  bettered  my 
results.  I  feel  sure  any  candid  medical  brother  who  will  have 
the  steady  courage  to  put  aside  many  old  and  unproven,  though 
much-practiced,    methods,    based  only  on   unquestioning   and 


ALCOHOL    AS   A    MEDICINE.  41 

unquestioned  experience,  and  to  move  into  these  new  fields  of 
observation  and  experience,  will,  in  the  end,  find  no  fault  with 
me  for  leaving  a  track  which,  though  it  be  beaten  very  firmly 
and  be  very  wide  and  smooth  to  traverse,  may  not,  after  all,  be 
the  surest  and  soundest  path  to  the  golden  gate  of  cure." 

THE    FRANCES    E.   WILLARD    NATIONAL    TEMPERANCE 
HOSPITAL. 

This  hospital  is  situated  at  1619  Diversey  Avenue, 
Chicago,  and  is  an  "  affiliated  interest "  of  the  Na- 
tional W.  C.  T.  U.  The  history  of  its  origin  is 
best  told  in  the  words  of  the  woman  to  whom  the 
conception  of  such  an  institution  first  came,  Dr. 
Mary  Weeks  Burnett,  for  several  years  the  phy- 
sician in  charge : — 

"  In  the  fall  of  1883  there  came  to  a  few  of  us  the  thought 
that  there  was  a  point  of  weakness  in  the  temperance  pledge. 
It  reads,  '  We  promise  to  abstain  from  all  liquors — as  a  bever- 
age' We  had  found  in  many  instances  in  reform  work  that 
pledging  to  abstain  from  liquor  •  as  a  beverage,'  and  leaving 
the  victim  to  the  unlimited  use  of  it  in  physicians'  prescriptions, 
was  simply  a  skirmish  with  the  devil's  outposts,  that  the  con- 
flict, based  upon  these  grounds,  was  short,  and  defeat  almost 
sure ;  and  the  great  fact  remained  that  the  innermost  recesses 
of  evil  force  and  power  were  by  this  pledge  still  left  unassailed. 
We  found  that  this  power  of  evil  had  largely  entered  the  homes 
of  our  land  through  the  family  physicians,  and  that  willingly  or 
not,  the  physicians  were  being  used  to  bring  in  even  our  inno- 
cent children  as  recruits  to  this  unrighteous  warfare. 

"Now,  how  could  we  hope  to  eliminate  those  three  little 
words  *  as  a  beverage '  from  our  pledge  ? 

"  In  some  way  we  must  bring  about  an  arrest  of  thought  in 
the  minds  of  100,000  men  and  women  physicians  whose  medi- 


42  ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE. 

cal  education  warranted  them  in  supposing  that  they  knew  that 
of  alcohol  which  justified  them  in  its  full  and  free  use  in  medi- 
cal practice.  Nothing  short  of  a  great  national  object  lesson 
could  ever  convict  and  convert  this  broad  constituency  through 
which  the  power  of  darkness  is  doing  his  deadliest  work. 

"  In  January,  1884,  four  of  us  met  and  organized  under  the 
name  of  the  National  Temperance  Hospital.  To  have  our  sick  j 
properly  cared  for  in  our  hospital  we  found  that  we  should  be 
obliged  to  train  our  own  nurses.  The  nurse  who  has  always  • 
been  accustomed  to  administering  alcohol  under  the  physician's 
prescription  at  all  times  and  under  all  circumstances,  and  to  ad- 
ministering it  herself  at  her  own  discretion  if  the  physician  is 
not  at  hand,  is  a  terror  to  the  temperance  physician.  So  we  in- 
cluded in  our  charter  a  Training  School  for  Nurses.  It  is  now 
open,  and  we  expect,  as  the  years  go  by,  to  send  out  armed 
with  our  training  school  diplomas,  grand,  noble  women  and 
men  thoroughly  trained  in  true  temperance  methods  for  reliev- 
ing the  sick. 

"  Our  organization  lived  on  paper,  and  was  sustained  in  pur- 
pose by  prayer  and  planning  for  two  years.  In  September, 
1885,  Mr.  R.  G.  Peters,  of  Manistee,  Michigan,  signified  to  us 
his  intention  to  give  $50,000  toward  our  buildings  whenever  we 
had  satisfactorily  materialized.  About  the  same  time  a  good 
old  gentleman  in  Michigan  placed  in  his  will  for  us  $2,500. 
The  dear  man  is  still  living,  and  we  hope  will  live  many  years. 
Even  the  money  when  it  comes  can  never  be  of  greater  service 
to  us  than  was  the  knowledge  at  that  time  that  the  Lord  was 
our  leader  and  was  raising  up  helpers  in  the  work. 

"In  January,  1886,  we  found,  according  to  the  law  under 
which  our  charter  was  obtained,  that  we  must  commence  active 
operations  at  once,  or  obtain  a  new  charter.  After  a  blessed 
season  of  prayer  and  counseling  together  in  the  board  meeting 
held  January  29,  there  being  present  only  the  members  of  the 
board  at  that  time,  Mrs.  Plumb  offered  to  advance  $3,500,  if 
necessary,  toward  the  expenses  for  the  first  year.     We  accepted 


ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE.  43 

it  with  great  thankfulness,  rented  a  building  the  1 5th  of  March, 
1886,  and  formally  opened  the  National  Temperance  Hospital  on 
the  4th  of  May,  1886. 

"  In  April,  1886,  we  took  a  firm  stand  upon  the  alcohol  ques- 
tion, and  decided  to  eliminate  it  entirely  from  our  list  of  thera- 
peutics, as  we  had  become  convinced  that  there  were  better  and 
more  reliable  remedies  as  stimulants  and  tonics. 

"  In  September,  1886,  at  our  annual  meeting,  we  reaffirmed 
this  decision,  and  we  now  have  the  following  as  one  of  the  arti- 
cles of  our  constitution :  'All  medicines  used  in  the  hospital 
must  be  prepared  without  alcohol,  and  all  physicians  accepting 
positions  on  the  medical  staff  of  the  hospital  or  dispensary  must 
pledge  themselves  not  to  administer  alcohol  in  any  form  to  any 
patient  in  hospital  or  dispensary,  nor  to  call  in  counsel  for  such 
patients  any  physician  who  will  advise  the  use  of  alcohol. 

"  Any  physician  of  pure  character,  and  in  good  standing,  who 
is  a  total  abstainer  from  liquor  and  tobacco  can,  by  subscribing 
to  this  pledge,  become  a  member  of  our  physicians'  association, 
and  if  so  desired,  be  placed  upon  the  visiting  and  consulting 
staff  of  the  hospital. 

"  The  cases  treated  in  the  hospital  include  many  of  the  seri- 
ous medical  and  surgical  maladies.  In  no  case  has  any  parti- 
cle of  alcohol  been  used,  and  the  usual  inflammatory  secondary 
symptoms  resulting  when  alcohol  is  used  have  been  entirely 
avoided. 

"  Our  course  of  building-up  treatment  is,  we  believe,  unique 
in  hospital  practice.  It  consists  of  treatment  by  massage,  heat, 
rest,  passive  exercise,  etc.  together  with  proper  medication  and 
a  thoroughly  nutritious  diet  adapted  to  the  individual  needs  of 
the  patient. 

"To  alleviate,  and,  if  possible,  cure  disease,  is  the  design  of 
all  hospital  treatment.  In  our  hospital  we  seek  to  gain  this  re- 
sult by  means  which  the  highest  science  of  the  day  approves, 
and  in  addition  to  this  we  have  especially  at  heart  the  advance- 


44  ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE. 

ment  of  the  temperance  reform.  There  are,  we  believe,  thou- 
sands of  temperance  adherents,  who  do  not  yet  fully  apprehend 
the  importance  of  this  hospital  to  the  permanent  extension  and 
progress  of  temperance  principles.  Although  prohibition  as  a 
prmciple  has  been  accepted  by  many,  yet  in  its  practical  appli- 
cation in  the  home  in  serious  illness,  it  is  still  feared  by  the  im- 
mense majority  of  even  our  strongest  prohibitionists.  We  are 
organized  upon  the  basis  no  alcohol  in  medicine,  and  we  are 
preparing  to  demonstrate  fully  and  scientifically,  so  he  who  runs 
may  read,  that  as  in  health,  so  in  disease  and  accident,  alcohol 
in  any  form  works  to  the  hindrance  and  injury  of  the  vital 
forces,  and  prevents  the  establishment  and  advancement  of 
health  processes  in  the  system." 

At  the  opening  of  the  hospital,  May  4,  1886,  Miss 
Frances  E.  Willard,  the  president  of  the  National 
W.  C.  T.  U.,  gave  the  following  address : — 

"  Nothing  is  changeless  except  change.  The  conservatives  of 
one  epoch  are  the  madmen  of  the  next,  even  as  the  radicals  of 
to-day  would  have  been  the  lunatics  of  yesterday.  To  prove 
this,  just  imagine  the  founders  of  this  hospital  declaring  to  my 
great-grandfather  that  because  he  had  taken  a  cold  was  no  rea- 
son why  he  should  take  a  toddy ;  and  per  contra,  imagine  my 
great-grandfather's  doctor  marching  into  our  presence  here  and 
now,  with  saddle-bags  on  arm,  and  after  treating  us  each  to  a 
glass  of  grog  for  our  stomach's  sake,  giving  us  a  scientific 
disquisition  on  the  sovereign  virtues  of  the  blue  pill,  and  inform- 
ing us  that  bleeding,  cupping  and  starvation  were  the  surest 
methods  of  cure  ! 

"  That  the  story  of  Evolution  is  true  I  am  by  no  means  certain, 
but  that  '  We,  Us,  and  Company,'  are  '  evoluting  '  with  elec- 
tric speed  ourselves  it  is  useless  to  deny.  This  very  hospital 
is  the  latest  mile-stone  on  the  highway  of  progress  in  the  Ameri- 
can temperance  reform.     The   conditions    that   have  made   its 


ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE.  45 

existence  possible  have  developed  in  this  country  within  about 
twelve  years. 

"  Public  opinion,  that  mightiest  of  magicians,  has  within  that 
time  been  educated  up  to  this  level  and  has  said  in  its  omnipo- 
tence :  '  Hospital,  be  ! '  and,  behold,  the  hospital  is, 

"When  I  joined  the  ranks  of  temperance  workers  in  1874,  a 
thought  so  adventurous  as  that  alcoholics  in  relation  to  medi- 
cine were  a  curse  and  not  a  blessing  had  never  lodged  within 
my  cranium.  But,  as  in  duty  bound,  I  studied  the  subject  from 
the  practical,  which  is  the  nineteenth  century  standpoint. 

"  I  investigated  the  cause  of  inebriety,  and  found  the  medical 
use  of  alcoholic  stimulants  a  prominent  factor  in  this  horrible 
result ;  I  sought  for  expert  testimony,  and  found  Dr.  N.  S.  Davis, 
ex-President  American  Medical  Association,  saying '  that  in  his 
ample  clinical  practice  he  had  for  over  thirty  years  tested  the 
medical  uses  of  alcoholics,  and  had  found  no  case  of  disease 
and  no  emergency  arising  fro?n  accident  that  he  could  not 
treat  more  successfully  without  any  form  of  fermented  or 
distilled  liquors  than  with  '  ;  found  Dr.  James  R.  Nichols,  of 
Boston,  so  long  editor  of  The  Journal  of  Chemistry,  declaring 
as  his  deliberate  scientific  opinion  that  the  entire  banishment  of 
these  liquors  '  would,  not  deprive  us  of  a  single  one  of  the  indis- 
pensable agents  which  modern  civilization  demands ' ;  found  Dr. 
Green,  of  Boston,  saying  before  the  physicians  of  that  city  that 
it  is  upon  the  members  of  the  medical  profession  and  the  excep- 
tional laws  which  it  has  always  demanded,  that  the  whole 
liquor  fraternity  depends  more  than  upon  anything  else  to 
screen  it  from  opprobrium  and  just  punishment  for  the  evils  it 
entails,  and  that  after  thirty  years  of  professional  experience  he 
felt  assured  that  alcoholic  stimulants  are  not  required  as  medi- 
cines, and  that  many,  if  not  a  majority  of  the  best  physicians, 
now  believe  them  to  be  worse  than  useless.  Meanwhile  I 
learned  that  across  the  sea  such  great  physicians  as  Dr.  Benja- 
min Ward  Richardson,  St  Andrew  Clark,  Sir  Henry  Thompson 
and  Sir  William  Gull  held  views  which  for  their  latitude  were 


46  ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE. 

almost  equally  radical ;  and  Dr.  James  Edmunds,  founder  of 
the  London  Temperance  Hospital  had  demonstrated  publicly 
and  on  a  grand  scale  the  more  excellent  way,  his  hospital  having 
4l  per  cent,  fewer  deaths  than  any  other  in  London,  taking  the 
same  run  of  cases,  and  that  the  Royal  Infirmary  at  Manchester 
reported  the  medicinal  use  of  alcohol  fallen  off  87  per  cent,  in 
recent  years,  with  a  decrease  in  its  death-rate  of  over  one-third. 
Besides  all  this,  and  independent  of  any  such  investigation,  the 
'  intuitions  '  of  our  most  earnest  women  were  leading  them  out  of 
the  wilderness.  As  is  their  custom,  they  determined  to  put 
this  matter  to  the  test  of  that  '  experience  which  one  experi- 
ences when  he  experiences  his  own  experience,'  and  a  whole 
body  of  divinity  upon  the  advantages  of  non-alcoholic  treatment 
could  be  furnished  from  their  evidence.  I  was  not  able  person- 
ally to  pursue  this  method,  my  own  condition  of  good  health 
having  become  chronic.  Away  back  in  1875,  in  executive 
committee,  one  of  our  leading  officers  was  stricken  with  angifta 
pectoris.  A  physician  was  promptly  summoned.  '  Give  her 
brandy,'  he  said,  and  insisted  so  stoutly  upon  it  as  vital  to  her 
recovery  that  we  should  probably  have  sent  for  it,  but  the  dear 
woman  gasped  out  faintly,  '  I  can  die,  but  I  can't  touch  brandy.' 
She  is  alive  and  flourishing  to-day.  Another  national  officer 
absolutely  refused  whisky  for  a  violent  attack  of  a  very  different 
character,  the  physician  telling  her  that  she  could  not  live 
through  the  night  without  it  ;  but  she  is  still  an  active  worker 
— a  living  witness  that  doctors  are  not  infallible.  Instances 
like  these  have  multiplied  by  hundreds  and  thousands  in  our 
Woman's  Christian  Unions  and  Bands  of  Hope.  '  No,  mamma 
I  can't  touch  liquor;  I've  signed  the  pledge,'  is  a  protest 
'  familiar  as  household  words.'  Meanwhile,  I  beg  you  to  con- 
template something  else  that  has  happened.  Behold,  our  own 
beloved  beverage  itself, 

'  Sparkling  and  bright, 

In  its  liquid  light,' 
has  come  grandly  to  our  rescue  in  this  crusade  against  alcohol 


ALCOHOL   AS    A   MEDICINE.  47 

in  the  sick  room.  Water  has  become  a  favorite — nay,  even  a 
fashionable — medicine  !  The  most  conservative  physicians 
freely  prescribe  it  in  the  very  cases  where  some  form  of  alcohol 
was  the  specific  so  long.  To  be  sure,  they  give  it  hot,  but  we 
do  not  object  to  that,  since  '  water  hot  ne'er  made  a  sot,'  and  it 
cures  dyspepsia  and  all  forms  of  indigestion  as  whisky  never 
did,  but  only  made  believe  to ;  while  its  external  use  as  a 
fomentation  is  banishing  alcohol  even  for  old  folks'  '  rheu- 
matiz  '  where,  as  a  remedy,  it  would  be  likely  to  make  its  final 
stand. 

"  Farewell,  thou  cloven-foot,  Alcohol !  Thou  canst  no  longer 
hide  away  in  the  home-like  old  camphor  bottle,  paregoric  bottle, 
peppermint  bottle  or  Jamaica-ginger  bottle  ;  and  a  tender 
good-by,  Mrs.  Winslow's  Soothing  Syrup,  for  be  it  known  to 
you  that  the  wonderful  discovery  stumbled  over  for  six  thousand 
years  has  in  our  day  been  made,  namely,  that  hot  water  will 
soothe  the  baby's  stomach-aches  and  the  grown  people's 
pains,  and  drive  out  a  cold  when  all  else  fails.  Jubilate  I 
Clear  out  the  cupboard  and  top  shelf  of  the  closet  now  that  the 
sideboard  has  gone.  Let  great  Nature  have  a  chance  to 
'  mother  up  '  humanity  with  the  medicine,  as  well  as  the 
beverage,  brewed  in  Heaven. 

"  May  God's  presence  and  blessing  be  upon  each  brain  that 
plans  for  the  National  Temperance  Hospital,  and  upon  every 
heart  that  holds  it  dear." 

The  report  for  1898  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  says  : 
"  We  are  fully  convinced  that  our  institution  has  made  great 
advancement  in  substantiating  before  the  world  the  principle 
upon  which  our  hospital  was  founded — that  alcohol  has  no 
place  in  medicine,  and  is  entirely  unnecessary  even  for  external 
use,  thus  obliterating  a  fruitful  source  of  drunkenness  and  vice. 
This  truth  has  been  proved  by  results,  and  is  acknowledged  by 
a  rapidly  increasing  number  of  the  medical  profession. 

"  The  medical  staffs,  both  regular  and  homeopathic,  include 


48  ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE. 

men  and  women  of  prominence  in  the  profession.  Physicians 
may  bring  their  patients  to  our  hospital,  and  treat  them,  after 
signing  our  pledge  to  abstain  from  the  use  of  alcohol  for  the 
treatment  of  all  patients  admitted  to  the  hospital." 

The  average  death-rate  has  been  about  5  per 
cent,  since  the  opening  of  the  hospital. 

The  following  letter  is  from  the  president  of  the 
Frances  Willard  Temperance  Hospital,  and  is 
given  here  by  her  consent: — 

"  My  Dear  Mrs.  Allen  : — 

"  Several  years  since,  I  began  my  work  in  Temperance 
Hospital  prejudiced  in  favor  of  alcohol  as  a  medicine — while 
I  have  never  approved  of  it  as  a  beverage.  I  am  glad  to  say 
that  I  am  now  thoroughly  convinced  of  its  uselessness  and 
even  harmf ulness  in  the  diseases  for  which  I  formerly  prescribed 
it. 

"  I  had  drawn  the  line  between  chronic  and  acute  disease, 
seldom  or  never  using  it  for  chronic  cases,  and  in  acute  cases 
giving  it  as  alcohol,  pure  and  simple,  rather  than  as  wine, 
brandy  or  whisky,  thinking  thereby  to  prevent  the  forming  of 
an  appetite — few  people  relish  the  taste  of  alcohol. 

"  It  was  very  hard  for  me  to  convince  myself  that  pneumonia 
and  typhoid  cases  were  as  safe  without  as  with  alcohol,  and  now 
I  am  prepared  to  say  that  I  consider  both  diseases  can  be 
treated  much  better  without  alcohol,  and  just  here  I  find  my- 
self between  two  fires.  When  the  question  is  propounded  to  me 
as  to  what  I  use  as  a  substitute  for  alcohol,  I  realize  that  no 
one  but  a  physician  can  make  a  diagnosis  of  a  disease,  and 
certainly  no  one  but  a  physician  is  capable  of  prescribing  for  a 
disease.  On  the  other  hand,  alcohol  in  the  form  of  wine, 
brandy,  whisky,  is  so  universal,  so  accessible,  so  easily  prescribed 
and   administered,   that   it   seems  almost   necessary  that  the 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  49 

remedies  which  take  its  place  should  be  equally  common  and 
as  easily  prescribed. 

"  This  is  a  great  error.  While  it  is  seldom  possible  that  much 
immediate  harm  can  come  from  the  one  or  two  doses  of 
alcohol  prescribed  in  emergencies  by  the  lookers-on,  it  is  possi- 
ble to  do  harm  with  the  remedies  such  as  strychnine,  nitro- 
glycerine, atropine,  digitalis,  camphor,  ammonia,  etc.  that  we 
use  as  stimulants  in  the  place  of  alcohol.  The  immediate 
drunkenness  produced  by  alcohol,  though  revolting,  is  not  its 
worst  effect  upon  the  body — the  effects  upon  the  cells  of  the 
liver,  kidney  and  brain  are  remote — the  result  of  continuous 
use  without  possibly  ever  having  reached  the  stage  of  drunken- 
ness. But  these  are  deep  waters  requiring  the  technicalities  of 
physiological  chemistry  to  fully  understand. 

"  The  point  I  wish  to  make  is  :  the  difficulty  of  popularizing 
the  use  of  any  poisons,  because  it  is  impossible  to  make  every 
man,  woman  and  child  a  diagnostician  who  shall  know  when, 
and  when  not  to  use  those  poisons. 

"  In  regard  to  the  influence  of  the  Temperance  Hospital,  it  is 
quite  extended  and  is  growing.  The  hospital  has  been  handi- 
capped in  several  ways.  First,  it  was  started  by  surgeons 
rather  than  physicians,  therefore  the  majority  of  the  cases  have 
always  been  and  still  are  surgical.  Surgeons  seldom  have  any 
use  for  alcohol  except  to  cleanse  the  surgical  field  for  operation. 
Occasionally  they  use  it  for  '  shock,'  or  for  '  blood  poison. '  In 
these  days  of  '  surgical  cleanliness,'  surgeons  seldom  have 
4  blood  poisoning.'  So  the  non-alcoholic  treatment  of  surgical 
cases  does  not  materially  help  the  cause  of  medical  temperance. 
Secondly,  the  hospital  has  never  been  able  to  afford  large  wards 
in  which  hundreds  of  cases  of  continuous  fevers  could  be  treated 
without  alcohol.  When  you  make  this  hospital  really  national, 
and  endow  it  with  enough  money  to  treat  the  sick  poor  with- 
out money  and  without  price,  then  you  can  gather  from  its 
statistics  such  an  object  lesson  that  even  the  enemies  of  tem- 
perance can  not  explain  away — an  object  lesson  that  will  do 


50  ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE. 

more  good  than  all  the  lectures  that  ever  have  been  or  will  be 
delivered  in  the  cause  of  temperance. 

"  As  to  the  stand  our  physicians  are  taking  upon  the  subject, 
I  have  to  say  that  the  best  of  our  own,  and  the  best  physicians 
of  other  countries,  are  beginning  to  see  that  alcohol  is  a  most 
dangerous  and  harmful  drug. 
"  Yours  sincerely, 

"  Sarah  Hackett  Stevenson, 

"  President  Frances  Willard 
National  Temperance  Hospital." 

In  August,  1898,  the  name  "  Frances  E.  Willard  " 
was  added  to  "  National  Temperance  Hospital,"  by- 
vote  of  the  Board  of  Trustees.  There  is  great  need 
for  a  more  commodious  building  for  this  worthy- 
enterprise.  Philanthropic  people  wishing  to  place 
money  where  it  can  do  much  good,  should  aid  in 
making  this  important  object-lesson  in  total  absti- 
nence what  it  really  should  be,  a  great  metropolitan 
hospital,  with  medical  college  attached. 

THE  RED  CROSS  HOSPITAL. 

A  philanthropic  young  woman,  Miss  Bettina  A. 
Hofker,  entered  Mount  Sinai  Training  School  for 
Nurses  in  1891.  Her  desire  was  to  fit  herself  as  a 
nurse  for  the  poor.  After  her  graduation  in  1893, 
she  met  Mrs.  Charles  A.  Raymond,  a  benevolent 
lady,  who  offered  her  pecuniary  assistance  in  net- 
work. Miss  Hofker  suggested  that  she  would  like 
to  institute  a  Red  Cross  Hospital  and  Training 
School  for  Nurses.  Mrs.  Raymond  succeeded  in  in- 
teresting others  in  the  proposition.     The  name  of 


ALCOHOL    AS   A    MEDICINE.  5 1 

Red  Cross  however  could  not  be  used  without 
permission  of  the  officers  of  the  society  bearing 
that  name,  but  after  consultation  with  Miss  Barton, 
permission  was  granted.  Several  years  previous  to 
this,  Dr.  A.  Monse  Lesser,  Dr.  Thomas  McNicholl 
and  Dr.  Gottlieb  Steger  had  opened  a  small  hospital 
under  the  name  of  St.  John's  Institute.  This  was 
now  amalgamated  with  the  Red  Cross,  and  Dr. 
George  F.  Shrady  and  Dr.  T.  Gaillard  Thomas,  two 
of  New  York's  leading  physicians,  were  requested 
to  act  as  consulting  physicians. 

The  hospital  does  not  confine  itself  to  service  in 
its  building  alone,  but  sends  its  workers  wherever 
called,  to  mansion  or  tenement.  The  "  Sisters  "  are 
trained  for  field  service  or  for  any  national  calamity 
such  as  floods,  earthquakes,  forest  fires,  epidemics, 
etc.  When  neither  war  nor  calamities  require  their 
presence,  they  devote  themselves  to  the  service  of 
the  needy  poor,  or  wait  upon  the  rich,  if  called. 
The  heroic  service  rendered  by  the  surgeons  and 
nurses  from  this  hospital  in  the  Cuban  War, 
brought  their  work  into  great  prominence. 

At  the  suggestion  of  Miss  Barton,  the  medical 
department  of  the  hospital  was  commissoned  to 
treat  diseases  without  the  use  of  alcoholic  liquids. 

Dr.  Lesser,  the  executive  surgeon,  is  a  German, 
and  of  German  education,  having  received  his  med- 
ical education  in  the  Universities  of  Berlin  and 
Leipsic.  In  a  conversation  with  a  press  represent- 
ative, Dr.  Lesser  said  some  time  a^o  : — 


52  ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE. 

"  We  have  been  convinced  that  the  use  of  alcohol  can  be 
entirely  eliminated  from  our  medical  practice,  and  this  has  been 
practically  accomplished  at  the  Red  Cross  Hospital.  We  find 
that  where  stimulants  are  required,  such  remedies  as  caffeine, 
nitro-glycerine  and  kolafra  take  the  place  of  alcohol,  and  are 
even  more  satisfactory.  The  main  use  of  alcohol  is  to  stimulate 
the  action  of  the  heart  in  various  ailments.  The  blood  is  thus 
forced  to  the  remote  parts  of  the  system,  and  poisonous  sub- 
stances carried  away.  But,  besides  serving  this  good  purpose, 
the  drug  tears  down  and  ultimately  destroys  the  cellular  tissues 
of  the  body.  A  relapse  is  certain  to  follow  the  application. 
The  drugs  that  I  have  mentioned  serve  exactly  the  same  purpose 
without  the  disastrous  results.  We  are  proving  this  every  day 
at  the  Red  Cross  Hospital. 

M  Only  a  few  days  ago  a  boy  was  brought  in,  apparently  at 
the  point  of  death.  He  was  put  into  bed  and  watched  by  the 
nurse.  After  a  little  ammonia  had  been  given  to  him  as  a 
stimulant,  he  unconsciously  expressed  himself  to  the  effect 
that  it  was  not  the  same  as  they  gave  him  in  another  place,  and 
gradually  when  it  dawned  upon  him  that  no  alcohol  was 
administered  by  the  Red  Cross,  he  said,  '  Gin  has  allers  made 
me  better.'  The  doctor  in  charge,  who  already  suspected  that 
the  boy  was  pretending  illness  for  the  sake  of  the  drink,  was  not 
surprised  an  hour  or  two  afterwards  to  learn  that  he  had 
demanded  his  clothes,  dressed  himself,  and  left  the  hospital 
most  ungratefully,  but  apparently  quite  well." 

Dr.  George  F.  Shrady,  one  of  the  consulting  phy- 
sicians, is  famous  as  having  been  in  attendance 
upon  both  President  Garfield  and  President  Grant. 
He  is  the  editor  of  the  Medical  Record,  one  of  the 
most  important  medical  journals  published  in 
America.  While  not  a  non-alcoholic  physician,  he 
says  of  the  medical  use  of  intoxicants : — 


ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE.  53 

"  There  is  altogether  too  much  looseness  among  physicians 
in  prescribing  alcohol.  It  is  a  dangerous  drug.  There  is  much 
more  alcohol  used  by  physicians  than  is  necessary,  and  it  does 
great  harm.  Whisky  is  not  a  preventive;  it  prevents  no  dis- 
ease whatever,  contrary  to  a  current  notion.  Another  thing, 
we  physicians  get  blamed  wTongfully  in  many  cases.  People 
who  want  to  drink,  and  do  drink,  often  lay  it  on  to  the  physician 
who  prescribed  it.  *****  i  think  that  in  most  cases 
where  alcohol  is  now  used,  other  drugs  with  which  we  are 
familiar  could  be  used  with  far  better  effect,  and  with  no  harm- 
ful results." 

Dr.  Steger,  another  physician  of  the  staff,  says : — 

"  I  don't  use  alcohol  at  all  in  my  practice.  I  used  to  use  it, 
but  my  observation  has  been  that  other  drugs  do  the  same 
work  without  the  harmful  results.  Alcohol  over-stimulates  the 
heart,  and  tears  down  the  cellular  tissues  of  the  system,  besides 
causing  other  deleterious  effects.  The  use  of  alcohol  is  simply 
a  superstition  among  physicians.  They  have  used  it  so  long 
that  they  think  they  always  must.  I  am  not  a  total  abstainer, 
but  that  only  shows  that  I  take  better  care  of  my  patients  than 
I  do  of  myself.  It  is  not  good  for  a  healthy  man  to  drink,  but 
sometimes  folks  like  myself  do  things  which  had  better  be  left 
undone.  I  have  seen  patients  in  hospitals  made  absolutely 
drunk  by  their  physicians." 

The  following  interesting  items  ia  regard  to 
practice  in  this  hospital  are  culled  from  the  report 
of  1897 : — 

"  Temperature  was  never  reduced  by  active  drugs  known  as 
antipyretics. 

"  Water  was  allowed  freely  after  all  kinds  of  surgical  oper- 
ations and  in  fevers. 

"  Alcohol  was  never  used  as  an  internal  medicine. 


54  ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE. 

"  The  free  use  of  water  in  saline  solutions  directly  injected 
into  the  tissues  was  found  of  great  service.  Quarts  have  been 
injected  that  way  with  most  satisfactory  results. 

"  Antipyretics  were  altogether  discarded  as  it  is  well  known 
that  their  action  diminishes  the  tone  of  the  heart.  Artificial 
reduction  of  temperature  only  deludes  one  into  the  belief  that 
the  drug  has  improved  the  condition  of  the  patient,  while  in 
reality,  it  has  no  beneficial  influence  on  the  disease,  and  has 
reduced  the  vital  resistance  of  the  patient.  In  no  case  has  high 
temperature  harmed  a  patient  and  there  was  every  evidence 
that  in  some  instances  a  high  temperature  was  preferable  to  a 
low  one. 

"  Special  attention  has  been  given  to  the  use  of  alcohol  in 
disease,  not  with  any  desire  to  approve  or  disapprove  it,  but 
solely  for  the  purpose  of  discovering  the  truth,  for  nothing 
seems  of  greater  public  interest  from  a  medical  standpoint  than 
the  truth  regarding  a  subject  for  which  so  many  virtues  are 
claimed  on  the  one  hand,  and  so  many  destructive  elements 
proven  on  the  other.     ***** 

"We  criticise  the  treatment  of  no  institution,  antagonize  no 
school  of  medicine,  claim  no  unusual  or  peculiar  scientific 
virtue,  but  what  we  do  maintain  and  insist  upon  is  this ;  that 
the  human  body  may  be  ever  so  afflicted,  ever  so  reduced,  the 
heart  ever  so  feeble,  and  the  spark  of  life  ever  so  dim,  the 
conscientious  student  of  medicine  can  secure  as  good  results 
without  as  with  administration  of  antipyretics,  sparkling  wines, 
beers  or  liquors. 

"  Experience  teaches  that  true  science  does  not  antagonize 
nature.  In  surgical  cases,  in  septicaemia,  in  pneumonia,  or  in 
any  of  the  fevers,  water  freely  administered  has  proven  to  be  a 
real  source  of  comfort,  and  an  aid  to  recovery.  It  is  amazing 
how  favorably  diseases  terminate  under  this  beneficent  bever- 
age. The  withholding  of  food  does  not  retard,  but  rather  hastens 
convalescence. 


ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE.  55 

"  In  the  conduct  of  our  Red  Cross  patients,  irrespective  of 
their  condition  when  admitted,  it  can  be  truly  said  that  after 
treatment  began,  delirium  has  not  been  witnessed  in  a  single 
instance,  and  as  our  hospital  reports  indicate,  our  mortality 
has  been  unusually  small. 

"  Alcohol  has  not  figured  as  a  life-saver  in  our  institution. 
Cases  of  extreme  collapse  following  major  operations,  cases  of 
pneumonia,  where  the  pulse  ranged  from  160  to  220,  patients 
suffering  from  pernicious  anaemia,  septicaemia,  pyaemia,  cholera 
infantum  and  typhoid  fever,  some  of  whom  when  first  seen  were 
in  the  worst  stages  of  delirium  and  collapse  have  without 
alcohol  regained  consciousness,  overcome  delirium  and  made 
excellent  recoveries. 

"  The  following  cases  very  forcibly  illustrate  the  results  of 
non-alcoholic  treatment : — 

"Case  No.  1.  A  child,  aged  nine  months,  under  treatment 
for  six  days  for  pneumonia,  came  under  our  notice  on  the 
seventh  day.  The  temperature  was  106  5-10  ;  pulse  was  220 ; 
respirations  90.  Whisky,  which  had  been  given  previously  to 
the  extent  of  two  ounces  daily,  was  stopped.  Carbonate  of 
ammonia,  caffeine  salicylate,  nitro-glycerine  and  1-10  of  a  drop 
of  aconite  were  given  internally ;  camphorated  lard  applied 
externally ;  with  the  result  that  on  the  ninth  day  temperature 
stood  99  ;  pulse  100  ;  respiration  20.  The  child  made  a  complete 
recovery. 

"  Case  No.  2.  L.  was  a  child  aged  eight  months,  suffering 
from  a  very  violent  attack  of  entero-colitis.  For  three  weeks 
previous  to  coming  under  our  notice  the  patient  received 
brandy,  stimulating  foods  and  alkaline  mixtures.  Fearfully 
emaciated,  temperature  106,  feeble  pulse  182,  frequent  bloody 
discharges  from  the  bowels,  numbering  as  much  as  thirty  in  a 
day  and  constant  vomiting,  the  child  was  considered  beyond 
hope.  Under  these  circumstances,  and  at  this  time  we  first 
saw  her.     Brandy  and  all  foods  were  stopped  ;  bowel  flushings 


56  ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE. 

were  given,  1-12  of  a  drop  of  tincture  of  aconite  was  adminis- 
tered every  half  hour  and  salicylate  of  caffeine  every  two  hours. 
In  twenty-four  hours  the  temperature  was  105  and  the  pulse 
160.  In  two  days,  temperature  was  102  and  the  pulse  140.  In 
one  week,  temperature  was  99  5-10,  pulse  1 10.  In  three  weeks, 
the  patient  was  discharged  cured. 

"  Case  No.  3.  Mrs.  C,  aged  forty-three,  who  had  been  under 
treatment  for  seven  weeks  for  metorrhagia,  nietortes  and  peri- 
tonitis came  under  our  notice.  Brandy  which  had  been  previ- 
ously given  in  large  quantities  had  proved  of  no  avail  and  the 
patient  was  considered  beyond  recovery.  We  found  her  com- 
pletely prostrated,  temperature  102,  pulse  170,  and  unconscious. 
The  heart  very  weak  and  irregular.  The  brandy  was  discon- 
tinued, salicylate  of  caffeine  and  nitrate  of  strychnia  were 
given  with  the  result  that  in  a  short  time  the  patient  was  con- 
valescent and  finally  recovered. 

"Each  case  in  our  hospital  is  an  additional  proof  that 
whether  found  in  wines,  spirits  or  beers,  alcohol  can  claim  no 
right  as  an  indispensable  medicine." 

Dr.  Lesser,  who  was  Surgeon-General  of  the 
American  Red  Cross  in  the  Cuban  War  said  after 
his  return  from  his  first  visit  to  Cuba  that  four  out 
of  six  of  his  patients,  to  whom  he  allowed  liquor  to 
be  given  as  a  concession  to  the  popular  idea  that  it 
was  necessary,  died  "  while  subsequently  in  treating 
absolutely  without  alcohol  sixty-three  similar  cases, 
only  one  died,  and  he  upon  the  day  on  which  he 
was  received  at  the  hospital. 

OTHER  TEMPERANCE  HOSPITALS. 

There  are  other  hospitals  'where  alcohol  is  not 
used,  not  because  it    is   the   desire    to    study  non- 


ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE.  57 

alcoholic  treatment  of  disease,  but  because  the 
physicians  in  charge  believe  they  have  better  results 
without,  than  with,  any  form  of  alcoholic  drink. 
Among  the  best  known  of  these  is  the  hospital 
connected  with  the  Battle  Creek  Sanitarium.  Some 
record  of  its  work  will  be  found  in  the  chapter  upon 
"  Comparative  Death-Rates  With,  and  Without 
Alcohol." 


CHAPTER   V. 

THE   EFFECTS   OF  ALCOHOL   UPON  THE 
HUMAN  BODY. 

The  body  is  made  up  mainly  of  cells,  fibres  and 
fluids.  The  cell  is  the  most  important  structure  in 
the  living  body.  Life  resides  in  the  cell,  and  every 
animal  may  be  considered  a  mass  of  cells,  each  of 
which  is  alive,  and  each  of  which  has  its  own  work 
to  accomplish  in  the  building  up  of  the  body. 

The  matter  which  forms  the  mass  of  a  cell  is  called 
protoplasm,  or  bioplasm.  It  resembles  somewhat 
the  white  of  a  raw  egg,  which  is  almost  pure  albumen. 
Cells  make  up  the  body,  and  do  its  work.  Some  are 
employed  to  construct  the  skeleton,  others  are  used 
to  form  the  organs  which  move  the  body  ;  liver-cells 
secrete  bile,  and  the  cells  in  the  kidneys  separate 
poisonous  matters  from  the  blood  in  order  that  they 
may  be  expelled  from  the  system. 

These  cells,  composing  the  mass  of  the  body, 
being  very  delicate,  are  easily  acted  upon  by  sub- 
stances coming  into  contact  with  them.  If  sub- 
stances other  than  natural  foods  or  drinks  are 
introduced  into  the  body,  the  cells  are  injuriously 
affected.  Alcohol  is  especially  injurious  to  cells, 
"  retarding  the  changes  in  their  interior,  hindering 
58 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  59 

their  appropriation  of  food,  and  elimination  of 
waste  matters,  and  therefore  preventing  their 
proper  development  and  growth." 

"Bioplasm  is  living  matter;  it  is  structureless,  semi-fluid, 
transparent  and  colorless.  It  is  the  only  matter  that  can  grow, 
move,  divide  itself  and  multiply,  the  only  matter  that  can  take 
up  pabulum  (food)  and  convert  it  into  its  own  substance ;  and  is 
the  only  matter  that  can  be  nourished.  The  bioplasm  in  the 
cell  gets  its  nourishment  by  drawing  in  of  the  pabulum  through 
the  cell  wall,  and  in  that  way  building  up  the  formed  material 
while  it  is  being  disintegrated  on  the  outer  surface.  This  proc- 
ess is  continually  being  carried  on,  and  is  what  is  meant  by 
nutrition.  Disintegration  of  the  formed  material  is  as  essential 
as  the  building  up  of  it.  All  organic  structure  is  the  result  of 
change  taking  place  in  bioplasm.  These  small  cell-like  bio- 
plasts are  the  workmen  of  the  organism.  All  wounds  are 
repaired  by  them,  all  fractures  are  united,  and  all  diseased  tis- 
sues brought  back  to  their  normal  and  healthy  condition,  unless 
there  is  not  vitality  enough  to  overcome  disease,  or  they  have 
been  injured  or  killed  by  poisonous  material.  The  body  is  kept 
in  repair  by  this  living  matter,  and  all  the  functions  of  the  body 
are  but  the  result  of  its  action.  We  may  examine,  watch  and 
study  bioplasm  under  the  microscope  ;  we  see  it  take  up  pabu- 
lum and  convert  that  which  is  adapted  to  itself  into  its  own  sub- 
stance, while  all  other  substances  are  rejected.  We  take  a 
solution  of  what  we  call  a  stimulant  and  immerse  the  bioplasm 
in  it,  and  we  find  that  it  increases  its  activity,  moves  faster,  takes 
up  more  pabulum,  and  divides  more  rapidly  than  in  the  unstim- 
ulated condition.  We  next  add  an  astringent,  and  it  begins  to 
move  more  slowly,  and  soon  contracts  into  a  spherical  shape 
and  remains  contracted,  or  may  move  slowly  to  a  limited  ex- 
tent, depending  on  the  strength  of  the  solution.  We  next  take 
a  relaxant,  and  gradually  the  living  matter  begins  to  spread  in 
all  directions,  in  a  laxy-like  manner,  and  becomes  so  thin  as  to 


60  ALCOHOL  AS  A    MEDICINE. 

be  almost  undiscernible,  and  takes  up  very  little,  if  any,  pabu- 
lum. If  sufficiently  relaxed  or  astringed,  the  movements  may 
entirely  cease  so  as  to  appear  lifeless,  but  when  a  stimulant  is 
again  added  the  same  result  is  obtained  as  before — it  begins  to 
move,  and  acts  as  vigorous  as  ever,  which  shows  that  it  was 
not  injured  in  the  least  by  the  agents  used.  Alcohol  is  called  a 
stimulant.  We  take  a  weak  solution  of  alcohol  and  try  it  in  the 
same  way ;  but  we  find  that  almost  instantly  the  living  matter 
contracts  into  a  ball-like  mass.  Now,  we  may  through  ignor- 
ance suppose  that  alcohol  acts  as  an  astringent,  and  so  we  try- 
to  stimulate  it  with  the  same  harmless  agent  before  used,  but 
no  impression  is  made  on  it ;  it  does  not  move  ;  it  is  dead  mat- 
ter. These  are  demonstrable  facts,  and  lie  at  the  foundation  of 
physiology,  pathology  and  the  practice  of  medicine.  Alcohol 
destroys  the  very  life  force  that  alone  keeps  the  body  in  repair. 
For  a  more  simple  experiment  as  to  the  action  of  alcohol,  take 
the  white  of  an  egg  (which  consists  of  albumen,  and  is  very 
similar  to  bioplasm),  put  it  into  alcohol,  and  notice  it  turn 
white,  coagulate  and  harden.  The  same  experiment  can  be 
made  with  blood  with  the  same  result — killing  the  blood  bio- 
plasts. Raw  meat  will  turn  white  and  harden  in  alcohol.  Al- 
cohol acts  the  same  on  food  in  the  stomach  as  it  does  on  the 
same  substances  before  introduced  into  the  stomach,  and  acts 
just  the  same  on  blood  and  all  the  living  tissues  in  the  system 
as  out  of  it ;  and  this  alone  is  enough  to  condemn  its  use  as  a 
medicine."  From  Alcohol,  Is  It  a  Medicine?  by  W.  F.  Pech- 
uman,  M.  D.,  of  Detroit,  Michigan. 

ALCOHOL  AND  STOMACH  DIGESTION. 

The  nitrogenous  portions  of  the  food  are  the 
only  ones  digested  in  the  stomach.  The  oily  and 
fatty,  as  well  as  the  starchy  portions,  are  digested 
in  the  small  intestines. 

Very  little  was  known  about  digestion  until  1833, 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  6l 

when  Dr.  Beaumont  published  the  results  of  his 
investigations  upon  the  stomach  of  Alexis  St. 
Martin.  St.  Martin  received  a  severe  wound  in  the 
left  side  from  a  shot-gun.  The  wound  in  healing 
left  an  opening  into  the  stomach  about  $  of  an 
inch  in  diameter,  closed  on  the  inside  by  a  flap  of 
mucous  membrane.  Through  this  opening  the 
interior  of  the  stomach  could  be  thoroughly  exam- 
ined. Dr.  Beaumont  made  hundreds  of  observations 
upon  this  young  man,  who  was  in  his  home  several 
years.     He  says  : — 

"  In  a  feverish  condition,  from  whatever  cause,  obstructed 
perspiration,  excitement  by  alcoholic  liquors,  overloading  the 
stomach  with  food,  fear,  anger  or  whatever  depresses  or  dis- 
turbs the  nervous  system,  the  lining  of  the  stomach  becomes 
somewhat  red  and  dry,  at  other  times  pale  and  moist,  and  loses 
its  smooth  and  healthy  appearance,  the  secretions  become 
vitiated,  greatly  diminished  or  entirely  suppressed." 

One  day  after  giving  St.  Martin  a  good  whole- 
some dinner,  digestion  of  which  was  going  on  in 
regular  order,  Dr.  Beaumont  gave  him  a  glass  of 
gin.  The  digestive  process  was  at  once  arrested, 
and  did  not  begin  again  until  after  the  absorption 
of  the  spirit,  after  which  it  was  slowly  renewed, 
and  tardily  finished. 

Gluzinski  made  some  conclusive  experiments 
with  a  syphon.  He  drew  off  the  contents  of  the 
stomach  at  various  times  with  and  without  liquor. 
He  concluded  that  alcohol  entirely  suspends  the 
transformation  of  food  while  it  remains  in  the 
stomach. 


62  ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE. 

Dr.  Figg,  of  Edinburgh,  fed  two  dogs  with  roast 
mutton;  to  one  of  them  he  gave  i£  ounces  of 
spirit.  Three  hours  later  he  killed  both  dogs. 
The  dog  without  liquor  had  digested  the  mutton  ; 
the  other  had  not  digested  his  at  all.  Similar 
experiments  have  been  made  repeatedly  with  like 
result. 

The  elements  of  our  food  which  the  stomach  can 
digest  depend  upon  the  pepsin  of  the  gastric  juice 
for  their  transformation.  Alcohol  diminishes  the 
secretions  of  the  gastric  juice,  unless  given  in  very- 
minute  quantities,  and  kills  and  precipitates  its 
pepsin.  It  also  coagulates  both  albumen  and 
fibrine,  converting  them  into  a  solid  substance, 
thus  rendering  them  unfit  for  the  action  of  the 
solvent  principles  of  the  gastric  juice.  Hence,  any 
considerable  quantity  of  alcohol  taken  into  the 
stomach  must  for  the  time  retard  the  function  of 
digestion. 

Many  experiments  have  been  made  with  gastric 
juice  in  vials,  one,  having  alcohol  added,  the  other, 
not  having  alcohol.  The  meat  in  the  vials  without 
alcohol,  in  time  dissolved  till  it  bore  the  appearance 
of  soup  ;  in  the  vials  to  which  alcohol  was  added 
the  meat  remained  practically  unchanged.  In  the 
latter  a  deposit  of  pepsin  was  found  at  the  bottom, 
the  alcohol  having  precipitated  it.  Dr.  Henry 
Munroe,  of  England,  one  of  the  experimenters  in 
this  line  of  research,  says  :— 

"  Alcohol,  even  in  a  diluted  form,  has  the  peculiar  power  of 
interfering  with  the  ordinary  process  of  digestion. 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  63 

"  As  long  as  alcohol  remains  in  the  stomach  in  any  degree 
of  concentration,  the  process  of  digestion  is  arrested,  and  is  not 
continued  until  enough  gastric  juice  is  thrown  out  to  overcome 
its  effects." — Tracy  s  Physiology,  page  90. 

Iii  The  Human  Body,    Dr.  Newell  Martin  says  : — 

"  A  vast  number  of  persons  suffer  from  alcoholic  dyspepsia 

without  knowing  its  cause ;  people  who  were  never  drunk  in 

their  lives'and  consider  themselves  very  temperate.     Abstinence 

from  alcohol,  the  cause  of  the  trouble,  is  the  true  remedy." 

Sir  B.  W.  Richardson  : — ■ 

"  The  common  idea  that  alcohol  acts  as  an  aid  to  digestion 
is  without  foundation.  Experiments  on  the  artificial  digestion 
of  food,  in  which  the  natural  process  is  closely  imitated,  show 
that  the  presence  of  alcohol  in  the  solvents  employed  interferes 
with  and  weakens  the  efficacy  of  the  solvents.  It  is  also  one  of 
the  most  definite  of  facts  that  persons  who  indulge  even  in 
what  is  called  the  moderate  use  of  alcohol  suffer  often  from 
dyspepsia  from  this  cause  alone.  In  fact,  it  leads  to  the  symp- 
toms which,  under  the  varied  names  of  biliousness,  nervous- 
ness, lassitude  and  indigestion,  are  so  well  and  extensively 
known. 

"  From  the  paralysis  of  the  minute  blood-veSsels  which  is 
induced  by  alcohol,  there  occurs,  when  alcohol  is  introduced 
into  the  stomach,  injection  of  the  vessels  and  redness  of  the 
mucous  lining  of  the  stomach.  This  is  attended  by  the  sub- 
jective feeling  of  a  warmth  or  glow  within  the  body,  and 
according  to  some,  with  an  increased  secretion  of  the  gastric 
fluids.  It  is  urged  by  the  advocates  of  alcohol  that  this  action 
of  alcohol  on  the  stomach  is  a  reason  for  its  employment  as  an 
aid  to  digestion,  especially  when  the  digestive  'powers  are 
feeble.  At  best  this  argument  suggests  only  an  artificial  aid, 
which  it  cannot  be  sound  practice  to  make  permanent  in  place 
of  the   natural   process  of  digestion.     In   truth,  the  artificial 


64  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

stimulation,  if  it  be  resorted  to  even  moderately,  is  in  time 
deleterious.  It  excites  a  morbid  habitual  craving,  and  in  the 
end  leads  to  weakened  contractile  power  of  the  vessels  of  the 
stomach,  to  consequent  deficiency  of  control  of  those  vessels 
over  the  current  of  blood,  to  organic  impairment  of  function, 
and  to  confirmed  indigestion.  Lastly,  it  is  a  matter  of  experi- 
ence with  me,  that  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  the  sense  of  the 
necessity,  on  which  so  much  is  urged,  is  removed  in  the 
readiest  manner,  by  the  simple  plan  of  total  abstinence,  with- 
out any  other  remedy  or  method." 

In  Medicinal  Drinking,  by  John  Kirk,  M.  D.,  this 
passage  occurs  : — 

"  Especially  in  the  matter  of  support,  it  is  essential  to  our 
inquiry  to  examine  fully  into  alcoholic  influence  on  the  change 
by  which  food  introduced  into  the  stomach  becomes  capable  of 
passing  into  the  circulation  and  constituent  elements  of  the 
living  frame.  It  may  be  best  to  suppose  a  case  for  illustration. 
Here,  then,  is  a  child  of,  say,  six  or  seven  years  of  age.  This 
child  is  of  the  slenderer  sex  and  has  been  brought  into  a  state  of 
extreme  weakness  as  the  consequence  of  fever.  The  fury  of 
the  disease  is  expended,  but  it  has,  as  nearly  as  may  be,  extin- 
guished life.  The  medical  man's  one  hope  for  saving  this 
child  is  now  concentrated  in  what  he  fancies  to  be  '  support.' 
Beef-tea,  arrowroot  and  port  wine  are  prescribed.  Let  it  be 
kept  in  mind  that  the  pure  wine  of  the  grape  is  discarded  in 
favor  of  alcoholic  wine.  Our  question  is,  What  effect  will  the 
alcohol  in  this  wine  have  on  that  process  by  which  the  food  is 
to  prove  really  nourishing,  and  so  to  be  that  support  which  is 
the  only  hope  for  this  child  ?  Will  it  help  her  ?  or  will  it  so 
hinder  the  necessary  change  in  the  food  as  to  kill  her,  unless 
she  has  sufficient  strength  left  to  get  above  its  influence? 
These  are  surely  important  questions.  Neither  of  them  can  be 
set  at  rest  by  the  fact  that  she  recovers ;  for  she  may  have 
strength  enough,  as  many  have  had,  to  survive  even  a  serious 
error  in  her  treatment. 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  65 

"  What  light,  then,  does  true  science  throw  on  these  important 
questions  ?  All  who  know  anything  on  the  subject  are  aware 
that  alcohol,  instead  of  dissolving_/<sW,  or  aiding  in  its  dissolu- 
tion, is  one  of  the  most  powerful  agents  in  preventing  that 
dissolution.  On  what  principle,  then,  is  it  possible  that  its 
being  mixed  with  the  materials  of  food,  in  this  case,  can  aid  in 
their  dissolution,  so  that  they  may  more  easily  be  changed  into 
the  fresh  blood  required  to  sustain  and  recover  life  in  this 
child  ?  " 

He  then  refers  to  the  experiments  with  gastric 
juice  in  vials,  and  proceeds  : — 

"  Here,  then,  is  indisputable  evidence  that  alcohol  effectually 
prevents  that  process  which  is  known  as  digestion,  and  which 
is  essential  to  food's  being  of  any  use  to  support  life  in  man. 
On  what  principle  can  the  physician  explain  his  introduction  of 
it  into  the  stomach  of  a  child  whose  thread  of  life  is  attenuated 
to  the  slenderest  hair  ? 

"  We  urge  the  chemical  truth  that  the  alcohol,  given  to  pro- 
mote support,  is  of  such  a  nature  as  to  prevent  that  which 
would  nourish,  from  effecting  the  end  so  much  to  be  desired, 
and  for  which  true  food  is  adapted." 

The  pure,  unfermented  juice  of  the  grape,  free 
from  chemical  preservatives,  is  now  used  by  many 
physicians  where  the  miserable  concoction  of  drugs 
and  alcohol,  known  as  port  wine,  was  once  con- 
sidered essential.  Unfermented  grape  juice  con- 
tains all  the  nutriment  of  the  grape,  without  any  of 
the  poison,  alcohol.  After  being  opened  it  should 
be  kept  in  a  cool  place,  or  it  will  ferment  and  pro- 
duce alcohol.  Fruit  juices  are  very  grateful  to  a 
fever  patient,  and  should  not  be  withheld  as  they 
are  in  so  many  cases. 


66  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

non-alcoholic  physicians,  recommend  them  highly. 
They  are  better  than  milk,  as  milk  frequently  pro- 
duces "  feverishness,"  while  fruit  juices  allay  it. 

For  those  who  think  beer  or  ale  an  incentive  to 
appetite,  Dr.  N.  S.  Davis,  and  others,  recommend 
an  infusion  of  hops,  made  fresh  each  day.  It  is  the 
bitter  which  promotes  appetite,  not  the  alcohol. 
For  the  sake  of  the  little  bitter  in  beer,  it  is  not 
wise  to  vitiate  the  tone  of  the  stomach  with  the 
alcohol  it  contains,  and  which  is  its  active  principle. 
Many  mothers  have  become  drunkards,  secret 
drunkards,  possibly,  through  the  use  of  beer  as  a 
fancied  aid  to  digestion.  Multitudes  of  men  suffer 
untold  horrors  from  dyspepsia,  caused  by  the  beer 
which  they  mistakenly  suppose  to  be  a  friend  to 
their  stomach. 

EFFECTS  OF  ALCOHOL  UPON  THE  BLOOD. 

"  The  blood  is  a  thick,  opaque  fluid,  varying  in 
color  in  different  parts  of  the  body  from  a  bright 
scarlet  to  a  dark  purple,  or  even  almost  black."  If 
a  drop  of  blood  be  placed  under  a  microscope,  im- 
mense numbers  of  small  bodies  will  be  seen.  These 
are  called  blood-globules,  or  corpuscles,  or  discs. 
There  are  both  red,  and  white  or  colorless,  corpus- 
cles. Each  red  corpuscle  is  soft  and  jelly-like. 
Its  chief  constituent,  besides  water,  is  a  substance 
called  hemoglobin,  which  has  the  power  of  combin- 
ing with  oxygen  when  in  a  place  where  that  gas  is 
plentiful,  and    of   giving   it    off   again    in  a  region 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  6? 

where  oxygen  is  absent,  or  present  only  in  small 
quantity.  Hence,  as  the  blood  flows  through  the 
lungs,  which  are  constantly  supplied  with  fresh  air, 
its  corpuscles  take  up  oxygen,  which,  as  it  flows  on, 
is  carried  by  them  to  distant  parts  of  the  body 
where  oxygen  is  deficient,  and  there  given  up  to 
the  tissues.  This  oxygen-carrying  is  the  function 
of  the  red  corpuscles. 

Hemoglobin,  as  the  coloring-matter  of  the  blood 
is  called,  is  dark  purplish-red  in  color  ;  combined 
with  oxygen  it  is  bright  "  scarlet  red."  Accord- 
ingly, the  blood  which  flows  to  the  lungs  after  giv- 
ing up  its  oxygen  is  dark  red  in  color,  its  dark 
color  being  due  to  the  impurities  it  contains;  and 
that  which,  having  received  a  fresh  supply  of  oxy- 
gen, flows  away  from  the  lungs  is  bright  scarlet — 
having  been  cleansed  of  its  impurities.  The  bright 
red  blood  is  called  arterial,  and  the  dark  red  venous. 

The  work  assigned  to  the  blood  in  the  economy 
of  the  human  system  is :  first,  to  pick  up  nutriment 
in  its  course  through  the  walls  of  the  alimentary 
canal,  and  oxygen,  as  it  flows  through  the  lungs, 
and  convey  these  to  all  other  parts  of  the  body. 
Second,  to  act  as  a  sort  of  sewage  stream  that 
drains  off  waste  matter,  and  to  carry  this  to  the 
organs  of  excretion  by  which  waste  is  expelled 
from  the  body. 

"  The  blood  is  the  great  circulating  market  of  the  body,  in 
which  all  the  things  that  are  wanted  by  all  parts,  by  the  mus- 
cles, the  brain,  the  skin,    the    lungs,   liver    and   kidneys,   are 


68  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

bought  and  sold.  What  the  muscles  want  they  buy  from  the 
blood  ;  what  they  have  done  with,  they  sell  back  to  the  blood  ; 
and  so  with  every  other  organ  and  part.  As  long  as  life  lasts 
this  buying  and  selling  is  forever  going  on,  and  this  is  why  the 
blood  is  forever  on  the  move,  sweeping  restlessly  from  place  to 
place,  bringing  to  each  part  the  things  it  wants,  and  carrying 
away  those  with  which  it  has  done.  When  the  blood  ceases  to 
move,  the  market  is  blocked,  the  buying  and  selling  cease,  and 
all  the  organs  die,  starved  for  "lack  of  the  things  they  want, 
choked  by  the  abundance  of  things  for  which  they  have  no 
longer  any  need." — Foster. 

This  is  one  way  of  saying  that  the  processes  of 
repair  and  waste  are  constantly  going  on  in  the 
body.  Every  action  of  the  body,  every  impulse  of 
the  mind  uses  up  some  cell-matter,  which  must 
then  be  passed  from  the  body  as  waste.  This  is 
called  tissue  disintegration.  New  cells  to  repair 
tissue  waste  are  built  up  from  the  nutriment  which 
the  blood  carries  from  the  alimentary  canal  after 
the  process  of  food  digestion  is  accomplished. 
This  is  called  tissue  construction,  or  the  process  of 
assimilation.  Technically,  these  are  the  metabolic, 
or  destructive  and  constructive  processes.  Both 
are  essential  to  health  and  life.  Any  substance 
taken  into  the  body,  which  will  interfere  with  these 
processes  of  nutrition  and  waste  is  inimical  to 
health,    and  in  time  of  disease,  dangerous  to   life. 

Alcohol  is  suck  a  substance. 

The  cells  and  tissues  of  the  body  which  are 
touched  by  alcohol  are  more  or  less  hardened  and 
injured  by  it,   hence   are    less   perfectly  nourished 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  69 

than  they  are  when  alcohol  is  not  present  in  the 
blood.  Even  a  teaspoonful  of  alcohol  to  a  ^  gallon 
of  water  hinders  natural  growth.  If  liquor  is  given 
to  puppies  it  keeps  them  small.  Young  growing- 
cells  are  most  affected  by  it,  because  they  are  most 
tender.  There  are  growing-cells  in  adults  as  well 
as  in  children,  for  people  are  growing  and  changing 
all  through  their  lives. 

Hence,  when  alcohol  is  administered  in  sickness 
the  cells  are  hindered  in  the  full  performance  of 
their  function  of  taking  up  food  for  the  building  up 
of  tissue,  and  as  a  consequence,  the  patient's  body 
is  really  robbed  of  nutriment  by  the" agent  which  is 
supposed  to  be  "  keeping  up  his  strength."  Truly, 
"  Wine  is  a  mocker,  strong  drink  is  raging,  and  who- 
soever is  deceived  thereby  is  not  wise." 

That  alcohol  interferes  with  the  passage  of  waste 
matter  from  the  body  is  generally  conceded.  In- 
deed this  is  claimed  by  the  advocates  of  its  me- 
dicinal use  as  one  of  its  virtues ;  the  fact  that  less 
waste  passes  from  the  body  being  urged  as  evidence 
that  there  is  less  waste,  that  in  some  way  alcohol 
preserves  tissue  from  being  used  up  in  the  natural 
way.  Those  who  speak  thus  seem  to  think  that  ■ 
they  know  better  than  the  Creator  how  the  body 
should  be  treated.  He  made  the  body  so  that  in 
health,  work,  waste  and  repair  should  be  equal  to 
one  another. 

Dr.  Ezra  M.  Hunt  says  in  Alcohol  as  a  Food  and 
as  a  Medicine  : — 


70  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

"  We  believe  that  any  one  who  will  candidly  review  the 
claims  put  forth  for  alcohol,  in  that  it  delays  in  any  of  these 
hypothetical  ways,  tissue-change,  will  conclude  that  it  has  no 
such  power  in  a  salutary  sense,  and  that  it  is  unwarrantably 
assumed  that  to  retard  tissue  metamorphosis  (change)  is 
equivalent  to  tissue  nutrition." 

Dr.  N.  S.  Davis  says: — 

"  It  seems  hardly  possible  that  men  of  eminent  attainments 
in  the  profession  should  so  far  forget  one  of  the  most  funda- 
mental and  universally  recognized  laws  of  organic  life  as  to  pro- 
mulgate the  fallacy  here  stated.  The  fundamental  law  to 
which  we  refer  is,  that  all  vital  phenomena  are  accompanied  by, 
and  dependent  upon,  molecular  or  atomic  changes  ;  and  what- 
ever retards  these  retards  the  phenomena  of  life  ;  whatever  sus- 
pends these  suspends  life.  Hence,  to  say  that  an  agent  which 
retards  tissue  metamorphosis  is  in  any  sense  a  food,  is  simply 
to  pervert  and  misapply  terms." 

Non-alcoholic  physicians  unite  in  declaring  that 
the  retention  of  waste  matter  in  the  system,  caused 
by  alcohol,  invites  disease,  and  tends  to  inflamma- 
tory action ;  and  in  illness  retards,  and  frequently 
prevents,  recovery,  for  the  germs  of  disease  remain 
longer  in  the  body  than  they  would  were  it  not  for 
the  delay  in  the  passage  of  effete  matter. 

Alcohol  not  only  hinders  the  blood  in  its  work  of 
tissue  nutrition  ;  it  also  prevents  the  full  oxidation  of 
the  blood  in  the  lungs. 

"  In  order  that  a  steam  engine  may  work  and  keep  warm  it 
is  not  merely  necessary  that  it  have  plenty  of  coal,  but  it  must 
also  have  a  draft  of  air  through  its  furnace.  Chemistry  teaches 
us  that  the  burning  in  this  case  consists  in  the  combination  of  a 
gas  called  oxygen,  taken  from  the  air,  with  other  things  in  the 


ALCOHOL  AS  A    MEDICINE.  7 1 

coals ;  when  this  combination  takes  place  a  great  deal  of  heat  is 
given  off.  The  same  thing  is  true  of  our  bodies  ;  in  order  that 
food  matters  may  be  burnt  in  them  and  enable  us  to  work  and 
keep  warm,  they  must  be  supplied  with  oxygen ;  this  they  get 
from  the  air  by  breathing.  We  all  know  that  if  his  supply  of 
air  be  cut  off  a  man  will  die  in  a  few  minutes.  His  food  is  no 
use  to  him  unless  he  gets  oxygen  from  the  air  to  combine 
with  it ;  while  he  usually  has  stored  up  in  his  body  an  excess 
of  food  matters  which  will  keep  him  alive  for  some  time  if  he 
gets  a  supply  of  oxygen,  he  has  not  stored  up  in  him  any  re- 
serve, or,  if  any,  but  a  very  small  one,  of  oxygen,  and  so  he  dies 
very  rapidly  if  his  breathing  be  prevented.  In  ordinary  lan- 
guage we  do  not  call  oxygen  a  food,  but  restrict  that  name  to 
the  solids  and  liquids  which  we  swallow  ;  but  inasmuch  as  it  is 
a  material  which  we  must  take  from  the  external  universe  into 
our  bodies  in  order  to  keep  us  alive,  oxygen  is  really  a  food  as 
much  as  any  of  the  other  substances  which  we  take  into  our 
bodies  from  outside,  in  order  to  keep  them  alive  and  at  work. 
Suffocation,  as  death  from  deficient  air  supply  is  named,  is 
really  death  from  oxygen-starvation." — Martin's  Human  Body. 

Much  of  the  food  taken  into  the  body  is  burned 
to  supply  energy  and  heat.  This  burning  is  called 
oxidation.  When  food  is  burned,  or  oxidized,  either 
in  the  body,  or  out  of  it,  three  things  are  produced, 
carbon  dioxide  {carbonic  acid  gas),  water  and 
ashes.  These  are  waste  matters,  and  must  be  ex- 
pelled from  the  body,  or  they  will  clog  up  the  vari- 
ous organs,  as  the  ashes  and  smoke  of  an  e'ngine 
would  soon  put  its  fire  out  if  they  were  allowed  to 
accumulate  in  the  furnace.  It  is  the  duty  of  the 
lungs  to  pass  the  carbon  dioxide  out  to  the  air. 
With  every  breath  exhaled,  this  poison  gas,  gen- 
erated in  the  body  through  the  oxidation  of  food, 


72  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

passes  from  the  system.  With  every  breath  inhaled 
the  life-giving  oxygen  is  taken  into  the  body  ;  pro- 
viding that  the  person  is  not  in  a  close  room  from 
which  the  fresh  air  is  excluded. 

Any  substance  taken  into  the  body  which  inter- 
feres with  the  reception  of  oxygen  into  the  blood, 
and  with  the  giving  off  of  carbon  dioxide  from 
the  same  is  a  dangerous  substance. 

Alcohol  is  such  a  substance. 

It  has  already  been  stated  that  it  is  the  duty  of 
the  little  red  corpuscles  in  the  blood  to  take  up 
oxygen  in  the  lungs,  and  carry  it  to  every  part  of 
the  body,  and  upon  the  return  passage  to  the  lungs 
to  convey  the  debris,  or  used-up  material,  from  the 
tissues,  called  carbon  dioxide  gas.  A  little  vapor 
and  ammonia  accompany  this  gas.  The  action  of 
alcohol  upon  these  little  corpuscles,  or  carriers  of 
the  blood,  is  to  somewhat  harden  and  shrivel  them, 
so  that  they  are  unable  to  take  up  and  carry  as 
much  oxygen  as  they  can  when  no.  injurious  sub- 
stance is  present  in  the  blood.  In  consequence  of 
this,  the  blood  can  never  be  so  pure  when  alcohol  is 
present,  as  it  may  be  in  the  absence  of  this  agent. 

The  following  is  taken  from  The  Temperance 
Lesson  Book,  by  B.  W.  Richardson,  M.  D. : — 

"  When  the  blood  in  the  veins  is  floating  toward  the  right 
side  of  the  heart,  which  communicates  with  the  lungs,  it  carries 
with  it  the  carbonic  acid  {carbon  dioxide),  and,  as  I  have  found 
by  experiment,  a  great  part  of  this  gas  is  condensed  in  these 
little  bodies,  the  corpuscles.     Arrived  at  the  lungs,  the  blood 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  73 

comes  into  such  contact  with  the  air  we  breathe,  that  the 
oxygen  gas  in  the  air  is  freely  absorbed  by  the  little  corpuscles, 
while  the  carbonic  acid  is  given  up  into  the  air-passages  of  the 
lungs,  and  is  thrown  off  with  every  breath  we  throw  out.  In 
this  process  the  blood  changes  in  color.  It  comes  into  the 
lungs  of  a  dark  color  ;  it  goes  out  of  them  a  bright  red.*  *  *  *  * 
The  parts  of  the  blood  on  which  alcohol  acts  injuriously  are  the 
corpuscles  and  the  fibrine.  The  red  corpuscles  are  most  dis- 
tinctly affected.  They  undergo  a  peculiar  process  of  shrink- 
ing from  extraction  of  water  from  them.  They  also  lose  some 
of  their  power  to  absorb  oxygen  from  the  air.  In  confirmed 
spirit-drinkers  the  face  and  hands  are  often  seen  of  dark 
mottled  color,  and  in  very  bad  specimens  of  the  kind,  the  face 
is  sometimes  seen  to  be  quite  dark.  This  is  because  the  blood 
cannot  take  up  the  vital  air  in  the  natural  degree.  ***** 

"  If  anything  whatever  interferes  with  the  proper  reception  of 
oxygen  by  the  blood,  the  blood  is  not  properly  oxidized,  the 
animal  warmth  is  not  sufficiently  maintained,  and  life  is  reduced 
in  activjty.  If  for  a  brief  interval  of  time  the  process  of  breath- 
ing is  stopped  in  a  living  person,  we  see  quickly  developed  the 
signs  of  difficulty,  and  we  say  the  person  is  being  suffocated. 
We  observe  that  the  face  becomes  dark,  the  lips  blue,  the 
surface  cold.  Should  the  process  of  arrest  or  stoppage  of  the 
breathing  be  long  continued  the  person  will  become  uncon- 
scious, will  stagger  and  fall,  and  should  relief  not  be  at  hand, 
he  will  in  a  very  few  minutes  die. 

"  I  found  by  experiment  t^iat  in  presence  of  alcohol  in  blood 
the  process  of  absorption  of  oxygen  was  directly  checked,  and 
that  even  so  minute  a  quantity  as  one  part  of  alcohol  in  five 
hundred  of  blood  proved  an  obstacle  to  the  perfect  reception  of 
oxygen  by  the  blood.  The  corpuscles  are  reduced  in  size, 
when  large  quantities  of  alcohol  are  taken,  and  become  irregu- 
lar in  shape." 

Dr.  J.  J.  Ridge  says  in  Addresses  on  the  Physio- 
logical  A  ction  of  A  IcoJiol : — 


74  ALCOHOL  AS  A  MEDICINE. 

"  It  has  been  found  by  experiment  that,  when  alcohol  is 
taken,  less  carbonic  acid  comes  away  in  the  breath  than  when 
it  is  not.  This  is  partly  because  the  blood-corpuscles  cannot 
•carry  so  much,  and  partly  because  so  much  is  not  produced, 
because  there  is  less  oxygen  to  join  with  the  food  and  produce 
it.  Just  as  burning  paper  smokes  when  it  does  not  get  enough 
oxygen,  so  other  things  are  formed  and  get  into  the  blood  when 
there  is  not  enough  oxygen  to  make  carbonic  acid.  These 
things  make  the  blood  impure,  and  cause  extra  work  and 
trouble  to  get  rid  of  them.  This  is  why  persons  who  drink 
alcohol  are  more  liable  to  have  gout  and  other  diseases,  than 
total  abstainers." 

Dr.  Alfred  Carpenter,  formerly  president  of  the 
•Council  of  the  British  Medical  Association,  says  in 
Alcoholic  Drinks  : — 

"  A  blood  corpuscle  cannot  come  into  direct  contact  with  an 
■atom  of  alcohol,  without  the  function  of  the  former  being 
spoiled,  and  not  only  is  it  spoiled,  but  the  effete  matter  which 
it  has  within  its  capsule  cannot  be  exchanged  for  the  necessary 
-oxygen.  The  breath  of  the  drunken  man  does  not  give  out 
the  quantity  of  carbonic  acid  which  that  of  the  healthy  man  does, 
and  the  ammoniacal  compounds  are  in  a  great  measure  absent. 
Some  of  the  carbon  and  effete  nitrogenous  matter  is  kept  back. 
The  retention  of  these  poisonous  matters  within  the  body  is 
highly  injurious.  Let  the  drinker  suffer  from  any  wound  or 
injury  and  this  effete  matter  in  his  blood  is  ready  at  a  moment's 
notice  to  prepare  and  set  up  actions  called  inflammatory  or 
erysipelatous,  or  some  other  kind ;  by  means  of  which  too 
often  the  drinker  is  hurried  into  eternity,  although,  perhaps, 
he  may  have  been  regarded  as  a  perfectly  sober  man,  and  have 
never  been  drunk  in  his  life." 

In  the  light  of  these  scientific  facts,  what  can 
appear  more  utterly  foolish  than  the  swallowing  of 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  75 

alcoholic  patent  medicines  which  are  widely  adver- 
tised as  "  Blood  Purifiers  "  ?  That  they  will  ren- 
der the  blood  impure  is  only  too  evident  in  the 
light  of  scientific  truth. 

Dr.  Nathan  S.  Davis  has  written  much  in  dis- 
approval of  the  use  of  alcohol  in  fevers,  pneumonia 
and  diphtheria,  putting  stress  upon  the  fact  that 
these  diseases,  of  themselves,  interfere  with  the 
reception  of  oxygen  into  the  blood,  and  hence  the 
use  of  all  remedies  that  notably  diminish  the 
internal  distribution  of  oxygen,  or  impair  the  cor- 
puscles of  the  blood,  should  be  avoided.  I  Not  only 
is  alcohol  of  such  a  nature,  but  all  the  coal-tar 
series  of  antipyretics  also.  Since  the  internal  dis- 
tribution of  oxygen,  and  the  processes  of  tissue 
change  are  essential  to  the  repair  of  the  body,  and 
alcohol  hinders  the  blood  in  the  full  performance 
of  its  duties  in  these  respects,  it  certainly  seems 
clear  that  those  physicians,  who  are  extremely 
cautious  in  the  use  of  this  drug,  or  who  do  not  use 
it  at  all,  are  more  likely  to  be  successful  in  saving 
their  patients  than  are  those  who  use  it  freely. 
Death-rates,  with  and  without  alcohol,  show  conclu- 
sively the  superiority  of  the  latter  treatment. 

ALCOHOL  AND  THE  HEART. 

The  organs  of  circulation  are  the  heart  and  the 
blood-vessels.  The  blood-vessels  are  of  three  kinds, 
arteries,  capillaries  and  veins.  The  arteries  carry 
blood  from  the  heart  to  the  capillaries ;  the  veins 


y6  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

collect  it  from  the  capillaries  and  return  it  to  the 
heart.  There  are  two  distinct  sets  of  blood-vessels 
in  the  body,  both  connected  with  the  heart ;  one  set 
carries  blood  to,  through  and  from  the  lungs,  the 
other  guides  its  flow  through  all  the  remaining 
organs ;  the  former  are  known  as  the  pulmonary, 
the  latter  as  the  systemic  blood-vessels. 

The  smallest  arteries  pass  into  the  capillaries, 
which  have  very  thin  walls,  and  form  very  close  net- 
works in  nearly  all  parts  of  the  body  ;  their  immense 
number  compensating  for  their  small  size.  It  is 
while  flowing  in  these  delicate  tubes  that  the  blood 
does  its  nutritive  work,  the  arteries  being  merely 
supply-tubes  for  the  capillaries,  through  whose 
delicate  walls  liquid  containing  nourishment  exudes 
from  the  blood  to  bathe  the  various  tissues. 

The  quantity  of  blood  in  any  part  of  the  body  at 
any  given  time  is  dependent  upon  certain  relations 
which  exist  between  the  blood-vessels  and  the  nerv- 
ous system.  The  walls  of  the  arteries  are  abun- 
dantly supplied  with  involuntary  muscular  fibres, 
which  have  the  power  of  contraction  and  relaxation. 
This  power  of  contraction  and  relaxation  is  con- 
trolled by  certain  nerves  called  vasomotor  nerves, 
because  they  cause  or  control  motion  in  the  vessels 
to  which  they  are  attached.  When  arteries  supply- 
ing blood  to  any  particular  part  of  the  body  con- 
tract, the  supply  of  blood  to  that  part  will  be  du 
minishedin  proportion  to  the  amount  of  contraction. 
If  the  nervous  control  be  altogether  withdrawn,  the 


ALCOHOL   AS   A   MEDICINE.  JJ 

arterial  walls  will  completely  relax,  and  the  amount 
of  blood  in  the  part  affected  will  be  increased  corre* 
spondingly. 

Alcohol,  even  in  moderate  doses,  paralyzes  the 
vasomotor  nerves  which  control  the  minute  blood- 
vessels, thus  allowing  these  vessels  to  become 
dilated  with  the  flowing  blood. 

"  With  the  disturbance  of  power  in  the  extreme  vessels,  more 
disturbance  is  set  up  in  other  organs,  and  the  first  organ  that 
shares  in  it  is  the  heart.  With  each  beat  of  the  heart  a  certain 
degree  of  resistance  is  offered  by  the  vessels  when  their  nerv- 
ous supply  is  perfect,  and  the  stroke  of  the  heart  is  moderate 
in  respect  both  to  tension  and  to  time.  But  when  the  vessels 
are  rendered  relaxed,  the  resistance  is  removed,  the  heart  begins 
to  run  quicker  like  a  clock  from  which  the  pendulum  has  been 
removed,  and  the  heart-stroke  is  greatly  increased  in  frequency. 
It  is  easy  to  account  in  this  manner  for  the  quickened  heart 
and  pulse  which  accompany  the  first  stage  of  deranged  action 
from  alcohol."— Richardson. 

Dr.  Parkes  of  England,  assisted  by  Count 
Wollowicz,  conducted  inquiries  upon  the  effects  of 
alcohol  upon  the  heart,  with  a  young  and  healthy 
man.  At  first  they  made  accurate  count  of  the 
heart  beats  during  periods  when  the  young  man 
drank  water  only  ;  then  of  the  beats  during  succes- 
sive periods  in  which  alcohol  was  taken  in  increasing 
quantities.  Thus  step  by  step  they  measured  the 
precise  action  of  alcohol  on  the  heart,  and  thereby 
the  precise  primary  influence  induced  by  alcohol, 
Their  results  are  stated  by  themselves  as  follows  : — 

"  The  average  number  of   beats  of  the  heart  in  24  hours  (as 


78  ALCOHOL   AS   A   MEDICINE. 

calculated  from  eight  observations  made  in  14  hours),  during 
the  first,  or  water  period,  was  106,000 ;  in  the  earlier  alcoholic 
period  it  was  127,000,  or  about  21,000  more  ;  and  in  the  later 
period  it  was  131,000,  or  25,000  more. 

"  The  highest  of  the  daily  means  of  the  pulse  observed  during 
the  first,  or  water  period,  was  77.  5  ;  but  on  this  day  two  obser- 
vations are  deficient.  The  next  highest  daily  mean  was  77 
beats. 

"  If,  instead  of  the  mean  of  the  eight  days,  or  73.57,  we  com- 
pare the  mean  of  this  one  day ;  viz.  77  beats  per  minute,  with 
the  alcoholic  days,  so  as  to  be  sure  not  to  over-estimate  the 
action  of  the  alcohol,  we  find  : — 

"  On  the  9th  day,  with  one  fluid  ounce  of  alcohol,  the  heart 
beat  4,300  times  more. 

"  On  the  10th  day,  with  two  fluid  ounces,  8,172  times  more. 

"  On  the  nth  day,  with  four  fluid  ounces,  12,960  times  more. 

'••  On  the  1 2th  day,  with  six  fluid  ounces,  20,672  times  more. 

"  On  the  13th  day,  with  eight  fluid  ounces,  23,904  times  more. 

"  On  the  14th  day,  with  eight  fluid  ounces,  25,488  times 
more. 

"  But  as  there  was  ephemeral  fever  on  the  12th  day,  it  is  right 
to  make  a  deduction,  and  to  estimate  the  number  of  beats  in 
that  day  as  midway  between  the  nth  and  13th  days,  or  18,432. 
Adopting  this,  the  mean  daily  excess  of  beats  during  the  alco- 
holic days  was  14,492,  or  an  increase  of  rather  more  than  13 
per  cent. 

"  The  first  day  of  alcohol  gave  an  excess  of  4  per  cent.,  and 
the  last  of  23  per  cent. ;  and  the  mean  of  these  two  gives  almost 
the  same  percentage  of  excess  as  the  mean  of  the  six  days. 

"  Admitting  that  each  beat  of  the  heart  was  as  strong  durfng 
the  alcoholic  period  as  in  the  water  period  (and  it  was  really 
more  powerful),  the  heart  on  the  last  two  days  of  alcohol  was 
doing  one- fifth  more  work. 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  79 

"  Adopting  the  lowest  estimate  which  has  been  given  of  the 
daily  work  of  the  heart;  viz.  as  equal  to  12.2  tons  lifted  one 
foot,  the  heart  during  the  alcoholic  period,  did  daily  work  in 
excess  equal  to  lifting  15.8  tons  one  foot,  and  in  the  last  two 
days  did  extra  work  to  the  amount  of  24  tons  lifted  as  far. 

"  The  period  of  rest  for  the  heart  was  shortened,  though,  per- 
haps, not  to  such  an  extent  as  would  be  inferred  from  the 
number  of  beats,  for  each  contraction  was  sooner  over.  The 
heart,  on  the  fifth  and  sixth  days  after  alcohol  was  left  off,  and, 
apparently  at  the  time  when  the  last  traces  of  alcohol  were 
eliminated,  showed  in  the  sphygmographic  tracing  signs  of 
unusual  feebleness  ;  and,  perhaps,  in  consequence  of  this,  when 
the  brandy  quickened  the  heart  again,  the  tracings  showed  a 
more  rapid  contraction  of  the  ventricles,  but  less  power  than  in 
the  alcoholic  period.  The  brandy  acted,  in  fact,  on  a  heart 
whose  nutrition  had  not  been  perfectly  restored." 

Richardson  quotes  these  experiments  of  Parkes. 
and  Wollowicz  as  if  he  agrees  with  them  that  in- 
creased heart-beat  must  of  necessity  mean  increased 
work  done  by  the  heart.  Dr.  Nathan  S.  Davis,  Dr. 
Newell  Martin,  Dr.  A.  B.  Palmer,  and  some  other 
investigators,  show  conclusively  that  mere  increased 
frequency  of  beat  above  the  natural  standard  is  no 
evidence  of  increased  force  or  efficiency  in  the  cir- 
culation. 

"  The  more  frequent  beats  under  the  influence  of  alcohol  con- 
stitute no  exception  to  the  general  rule,  for  while  the  heart  beats 
more  frequently,  its  influence  on  the  vasomotor  nerves  causes 
dilatation  of  the  peripheral  and  systemic  blood-vessels,  as 
proved  by  the  pulse-line  written  by  the  sphygmograph,  which 
more  than  counterbalances  the  supposed  increased  action  of  the 
heart.  The  truth  is,  that  under  the  influence  of  alcohol  in  the 
blood  the  systolic  action  of  the  heart  loses  in  sustained  force  in 


SO  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

direct  proportion  to  its  increase  in  frequency,  until,  by  simply 
increasing  the  proportion  of  alcohol,  the  heart  stops  in  diastole, 
as  perfectly  paralyzed  as  are  the  coats  of  the  smaller  vessels 
throughout  the  system.  This  was  clearly  demonstrated  by  the 
experiments  of  Professor  Martin  of  Johns  Hopkins  University, 
to  determine  the  effects  of  different  proportions  of  alcohol  on 
the  action  of  the  heart  of  the  dog;  and  those  of  Drs.  Sidney 
Ringer  and  H.  Sainsbury,  to  determine  the  relative  strength  of 
different  alcohols  as  indicated  by  their  influence  on  the  heart  of 
the  frog.  Professor  Martin  states  that  blood  containing  J  per 
cent,  by  volume  of  absolute  alcohol,  almost  invariably  dimin- 
ishes, within  a  minute,  the  work  done  by  the  heart." 

(This  estimate  would  equal  in  an  adult  man  an 
amount  equal  to  the  absolute  alcohol  in  two  or 
three  ounces  of  whisky  or  brandy.) 

"  These  investigations  of  Professor  Martin,  being  directly 
corroborated  by  those  of  Drs.  Ringer  and  Sainsbury,  complete 
the  series  of  demonstrations  needed  to  show  the  actual  effects 
of  alcohol  on  the  cardiac,  as  well  as  on  the  vasomotor,  and 
also  on  the  direct  contractability  of  the  muscular  structure, 
when  supplied  with  blood  containing  all  gradations  in  the  rela- 
tive proportion  of  alcohol,  leaving  no  longer  any  basis  for  the 
idea,  popular  both  in  and  out  of  the  profession,  that  alcohol  in 
any  of  its  forms  is  capable  of  increasing,  even  temporarily  the 
force  or  efficiency  of  the  heart's  action." — Dr.  N.  S.  Davis  in 
Influence  of  Alcohol  On  the  Human  System. 

The  following  letter  will  be  of  great  interest  to 
all  students  of  the  physiological  effects  of  alcohol : — 

"Chicago,  III.,  March  3,  1899. 
"To  Mrs.  Martha  M.  Allen, 
"Syracuse,  N.  Y., 

"  Madam  :  Your  letter  asking  my  attention  to  the 
apparent  contradiction  of  authorities  concerning  the  work  done 
by  the  heart  when  influenced  by  alcohol  was  received  yesterday. 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  8 1 

"  The  explanation  is  not  difficult.  It  depends  entirely  on  the 
different  views  of  what  constitutes  the  work  of  the  heart. 

"  One  class  of  investigators,  led  by  the  original  and  valuable 
experiments  of  Parkes  and  Wollowicz  base  their  estimate  of 
the  heart's  work  entirely  on  the  number  of  times  it  contracts  or 
beats  per  minute.  Thus  Dr.  Parkes,  finding  that  moderate 
doses  of  alcohol  increased  the  number  of  contractions  of  the 
heart  from  three  to  six  beats  per  minute  more  than  natural, 
readily  estimated  the  number  of  additional  contractions  that 
would  occur  in  twenty-four  hours,  and  thereby  demonstrated  a 
large  amount  of  increased  work  done  by  the  heart  under  the 
influence  of  alcohol.  All  writers  who  speak  of  '  stimulating '  or 
increasing  the  action  of  the  heart  by  alcohol  follow  this  method 
of  measuring  the  amount  of  work  done.  They  generally  add 
that  it  is  like  applying  '  the  whip  to  a  tired  horse.' 

"  The  other  class  of  investigators  who  claim  that  alcohol  di- 
minishes the  actual  work  done  by  the  heart  base  their  estimates 
on  the  amount  of  blood  the  heart  passes  through  its  cavities 
into  the  arteries  in  a  given  time.  This  is  the  physiological 
function  of  the  heart ;  i.  e.  to  aid  in  circulating  the  blood. 
Professor  Martin's  experiments  were  admirably  contrived  to 
determine,  not  how  frequently  the  heart  beat,  but  the  amount  of 
blood  it  delivered  per  minute  under  the  influence  of  alcohol  and 
without  alcohol. 

"  He,  and  all  others  who  take  this  basis  of  work,  found  that 
alcohol  in  any  dose  diminished  the  efficiency  of  the  heart  in  cir- 
culating the  blood  in  direct  ratio  to  the  quantity  taken. 

"  My  own  original  experiments,  made  fifty  years  ago,  uni- 
formly showed  that  alcohol  quickly  increased  the  number  of 
heart  beats  per  minute,  but  at  the  same  time  diminished  the 
efficiency  of  the  circulation  generally.  Every  experienced  prac- 
titioner knows  that  the  weaker  the  heart  becomes,  the  faster  it 
beats.  Consequently,  the  number  of  times  the  heart  contracts 
per  minute  is  no  measure  of  the  efficiency  of  its  work  in  circula- 


82  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

ting  the  blood.  Indeed  the  mechanism  of  the  heart  is  such 
that  there  must  be  sufficient  time  between  each  of  its  con- 
tractions for  its  cavities  to  Jill,  or  it  is  made  to  contract  on  an 
insufficient  supply,  and  the  efficiency  of  the  circulation  is  di- 
minished. 

"Yours  respectfully, 

"  N.  S.  Davis." 

The  International  Medical  Congress  of  1876 
adopted  as  its  reply  to  the  Memorial  of  the  National 
Temperance  Society,  and  of  the  National  Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Union  respecting  "  Alcohol 
as  a  Food  and  as  a  Medicine,"  the  paper  by  Dr. 
Ezra  M.  Hunt,  one  conclusion  of  which  was,  "  Its 
use  as  a  medicine  is  chiefly  that  of  a  cardiac  stim- 
ulant." 

As  experiments  conducted  since  that  time  show 
that  it  is  not  a  cardiac  stimulant,  but  a  direct  car- 
diac paralyzant,  what  excuse  is  there  for  using  it  as 
a  medicine  now? 

"  Whenever  the  heart  is  compelled  to  more  rapid  contraction 
than  is  natural,  it  has  less  time  to  rest.  Although  it  seems  to 
be  constantly  at  work,  it  really  rests  more  than  half  the  time, 
so  that,  although  the  periods  of  relaxation  are  very  short,  they 
are  so  numerous  that  the  aggregate  amount  of  rest  in  a  day  is 
very  great.  Now,  if  the  rapidity  of  the  contractions  is  increased 
materially  and  continuously,  although  the  aggregate  amount  of 
time  for  rest  may  be  the  same  as  before,  yet  the  waste  caused  by 
the  contractions  is  greater,  while  the  time  for  rest  after  each 
one  is  shorter.  This  lack  of  rest  produces  exhaustion  of  the 
heart-muscle,  ending  in  partial  change  of  the  muscular  tissue 
into  fat.  The  heart  then  becomes  flabby  and  weak  and  its 
walls  become  thinner,  a  condition  known  to  physicians  as  a 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  83 

■  fatty  heart,'  often  resulting  in  sudden  death." — Tracy's  Physi- 
ology* page  158. 

Dr.  T.  D.  Crothers,  of  Hartford,  Conn.,  has  made 
many  observations  with  the  sphygmograph  to 
learn  the  effects  of  alcohol  upon  the  heart.  He 
says  : — 

**  On  general  principles,  and  clinically,  the  increased  activity 
and  subsequent  diminution  of  the  heart's  action  brings  no 
medicinal  aid  or  strength  to  combat  disease.  This  is  simply  a 
reckless  waste  of  force  for  which  there  is  no  compensation. 
Without  any  question  or  doubt  the  increased  heart's  action, 
extending  over  a  long  period,  is  dangerous. 

"  The  medicinal  damage  done  by  alcohol  does  not  fall  ex- 
clusively upon  the  heart,  although  this  organ  may  show  it  more 
permanently  than  others." — Transactions  of  Second  Annual 
Meeting  of  A.  M.  T.  A. 

Dr.  I.  N.  Quimby,  of  Jersey  City,  N.  J.,  in  an 
address  before  the  American  Medical  Temperance 
Association,  after  describing  two  clinical  cases  which 
ended  in  death,  made  the  following  statement : — 

"  There  was  nothing  so  strange  about  the  death  of  these 
two  patients,  although  they  both  died  unexpectedly  to  the 
physician  and  their  friends,  but  the  declaration  I  am  about  to 
make  may  be  somewhat  new  and  startling,  namely :  That 
neither  of  these  patients,  in  my  candid  judgment,  died  from  the 
effect  of  disease,  but  rather  from  vasomotor  paralysis  of  the 
heart,  superinduced  by  the  administration  of  the  alcohol, 
which  brought  on  a  sudden  and  unexpected  collapse  and  death." 

Alcohol  causes  fatty  degeneration  of  the  heart 
and  other  muscular  structures.  Old  age  also 
causes  these  degenerations,  hence  alcohol  is  said  to 
produce  premature  aging  of  the  body. 


84  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

'*  In  fatty  degeneration  the  cells  and  fibres  of  the  body  be- 
come more  or  less  changed  into  fat.  If  a  muscular  fibre  under- 
goes fatty  degeneration,  the  particles  of  which  it  is  made  dis- 
appear one  by  one,  and  particles  of  oil  or  fatty  matter  take 
their  place,  so  that  the  degree  or  amount  of  degeneration  varies 
according  to  the  extent  to  which  this  change  has  gone  on. 
When  the  fibres  of  which  a  muscle  is  composed  have  become 
thus  altered  by  fatty  degeneration  they  become  softer  accord- 
ing to  the  amount  of  it ;  they  are  more  easily  torn  and  may 
even  tear  across  when  the  muscle  is  being  used  during  life. 
The  more  a  muscle  is  thus  degenerated  the  weaker  it  is,  be- 
cause it  contains  less  muscular  substance  and  more  fat.  Not 
only  do  the  heart  and  other  voluntary  muscles  thus  degenerate, 
but  those  of  the  arteries  also. 

"  Fatty  degeneration  is  promoted  by  alcohol  because  alcohol 
prevents  the  proper  removal  of  fat,  which  has  been  seen  to 
accumulate  in  the  blood  ;  alcohol  prevents  the  proper  oxidation 
or  burning  up  of  waste  matters  ;  growing  cells  which  are  affected 
by  the  chemical  influence  of  alcohol  are  not  quite  natural  or 
healthy,  so  are  more  liable  to  degeneration  ;  alcohol  hinders  the 
proper  removal  of  waste  matter  from  individual  cells  and 
tissues." — Dr.  J.  J.  Ridge,  London. 

Dr.  Newell  Martin  says  in  The  Human  Body  : — 
"  Although  fatty  degeneration  of  the  heart  may  occur  from 

other  causes,  alcoholic  indulgence  is   the  most  frequent  one. 

Fatty  liver  or  fatty  heart  is  rarely  if  ever  curable ;  either  will 

ultimately  cause  death." 

Dr.  Ridge  says  these  degenerations  occur  in  the 
tissues  of  thin  people  as  well  as  in  those  of  stout 
persons.  In  thin  people  they  are  usually  in  the 
fibres  only,  not  between  them. 

It  is  because  of  this  degeneration  of  the  heart 
and  other  muscles  caused  by  alcohol  that  athletes  in 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  85 

training  need  to  be  so  very  careful  to  avoid  the  use 
of  beer  and  other  intoxicating  drinks. 

Diseases  such  as  fevers,  diphtheria,  and  pneu- 
monia which  interfere  with  the  reception,  and  inter- 
nal distribution  of  oxygen,  favor  granular  and  fatty 
degeneration  of  the  heart  and  other  structures  of 
the  body.  Hence  non-alcoholic  physicians  urge  that 
alcohol  and  such  other  drugs,  as  have  like  action  in 
hindering  full  oxidation  of  the  blood,  and  causing 
fatty  degenerations  should  be  studiously  avoided. 
These  physicians  attribute  many  of  the  deaths  from 
heart-failure  in  such  diseases  to  the  combined  action 
of  the  disease  and  the  alcohol  in  exhausting  the 
heart,  and  weakening  its  structure. 

Comparative  death-rates  with  and  without  alcohol 
show  conclusively  the  superiority  of  the  latter  treat- 
ment. 

EFFECTS  OF  ALCOHOL   UPON  THE  LIVER. 

The  liver  is  a  very  large  organ,  the  largest  and 
heaviest  in  the  body,  weighing  in  a  healthy  adult 
from  three  to  four  pounds.  It  secretes  the  bile. 
Its  cells  also  store  up,  "  in  the  form  of  a  kind  of 
animal  starch  called  glycogen,"  excess  of  starchy  or 
sugary  food  absorbed  from  the  intestine  during  the 
digestion  of  a  meal.  This  it  gradually  doles  out 
to  the  blood  for  general  use  by  the  organs  of  the 
body  until  the  next  meal  is  eaten. 

Dr.  William  Hargreaves  says : — 

"  The  office  of  the  liver  is  to  take  up  new  substances  having 


$6  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

not  yet  become  blood,  as  well  as  the  portions  of  integrated, 
matter  that  can  be  worked  over,  and  brought  again  into  use. 
It  is  in  fact  the  economist  of  the  system.  It  excretes  bile,  and 
liver-sugar,  and  renews  the  blood.  When  the  liver  is  disor- 
dered the  whole  body  is  more  or  less  deranged  and  the  proper 
nutrition  of  its  parts  arrested." 

Dr.  Alfred  Carpenter  says  : — 

"  The  liver  has  to  do  several  things  ;  a  considerable  part  of  its 
duty  is  to  purify  the  blood  from  ddbris  (waste  matter),  to  filter 
out  some  things,  to  break  up  and  alter  others,  and  to  expel 
them  from  the  body  in  the  form  of  bile.  There  are  certain  dis- 
eases in  which  the  liver  suddenly  declines  to  do  any  more  work. 
Acute  atrophy  of  the  liver  is  the  name  of  this  condition,  and 
when  it  arises  death  rapidly  results  from  suppression  of  the  se- 
cretion of  bile.  It  brings  about  a  state  of  things  called  acholia; 
the  patient  is  actually  poisoned  by  the  non-removal  of  those  in- 
gredients from  the  blood  which  it  is  the  duty  of  the  liver  to  re- 
move. This  corresponds  in  effect  to  the  condition  which  alco- 
hol can  bring  about  by  slow  degrees." 

The  liver  is  the  first  important  organ,  next  to  the 
stomach  and  bowels,  to  receive  the  poisonous  in- 
fluence of  alcohol. 

"  If  alcohol  is  used  habitually,  though  only  in  small  quantities 
at  a  time,  the  liver  may  become  the  seat  of  serrous  changes. 
There  may  be  a  great  increase  of  fat  deposited  in  the  cells, 
producing  what  is  called  '  fatty  liver,'  or  it  may  lead  to  a  great 
increase  of  connective  tissue  (membrane)  between  the  cells,  and 
surrounding  the  blood-vessels.  This  newly-developed  con- 
nective tissue  gradually  contracts,  and  in  so  doing  crushes  the 
■cells  and  obstructs  the  blood-vessels,  making  the  organ  much 
smaller  than  natural,  and  causing  the  surface  to  be  covered 
with  little  projecting  knobs,  consisting  of  portions  of  liver-tissue 
that  have  been  less  compressed  than  the  part  that  separates 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  87 

them.  The  pressure  upon  the  liver-cells  and  the  destruction  of 
many  of  them,  prevents  the  proper  formation  of  bile  and  liver- 
sugar.  The  contraction  of  the  newly-developed  tissue,,  by  ob- 
structing the  blood-vessels,  interferes  with  the  circulation. 
Malt  liquors  seem  to  produce  fatty  degeneration,  while  the 
stronger  liquors  cause  the  development  of  connective  tissue." — 
Tracy 's  Physiology. 

Speaking  of  diseases  of  the  liver,  Dr.  Trotter  said 
in  his  Essay  on  Drunkenness  : — 

"  The  chronic  species  is  not  a  painful  disease ;  it  is  slow  in 
its  progress,  and  frequently  gives  no  alarm,  till  some  incurable 
affection  is  the  consequence.  Hence,  the  fallacy  and  danger  of 
judging  merely  by  the  feelings  of  the  beneficial  effects  of  the 
use  of  intoxicating  drinks ;  for  the  liver  and  stomach  may  be 
seriously  diseased,  while  a  man  imagines  himself  in  moderate 
health." 

Hardening  of  the  liver,  or  "  hob-nailed  "  liver,  is 
said  to  be  the  result,  largely,  of  taking  liquor  upon 
an  empty  stomach.  Dr.  E.  Chenery,  of  Boston,  in 
his  excellent  book,  Facts  for  the  Millions,  tells  of  a 
patient  of  his  who  was  well  up  to  the  evening  be- 
fore, when  he  went  out  and  drank  with  some  com- 
panions, taking  the  liquor  on  an  empty  stomach. 
That  night,  vomiting  and  pain  in  the  right  side 
came  on,  with  high  fever.  Headache  began  and  in- 
creased, followed  by  delirium  and  a  general  jaun- 
diced condition.  He  died  as  a  result.  The  disease 
was  acute  inflammation  of  the  liver,  brought  on  by 
the  one  broadside  of  alcohol  poured  "  point  blank  " 
into  the  organ. 

Dr.  Chenery  says  further  on  in  the  same  book  : — 


88  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

"  There  is  another  disorder  of  a  very  serious  nature  which 
science  is  now  laying  at  the  doors  of  the  liver — diabetes  mellitus, 
or  sugar  in  the  urine.  Till  quite  recently,  this  formidable  af- 
fection has  been  regarded  as  having  its  seat  in  the  kidneys  ; 
and  it  is  so  classified  in  medical  writings.  Later  researches, 
however,  show  that  the  sugar  has  been  formed  in  the  economy 
before  it  reaches  the  kidneys,  and  that  these  organs  act  only  as 
strainers  with  respect  to  it,  removing  it  from  the  blood  as  they 
remove  salt  and  various  other  substances.  In  seeking  for  the 
fountain-head  of  diabetic  sugar,  it  is  found  that  the  liver  is  the 
great  glycogenic,  or  sugar-originating  factory  of  the  body.  In 
an  ordinary  state  of  health  this  substance  is  produced  in  just 
the  proper  amount  for  the  uses  for  which  it  is  intended,  so  that 
it  is  all  disposed  of  in  the  organism,  and  does  not  pass  off  by 
the  kidneys.  If  any  cause  interrupts  the  processes  by  which 
the  sugar  is  consumed,  while  its  manufacture  goes  on  normally, 
there  will  come  to  be  an  over-supply  of  sugar  in  the  blood, 
which,  wrhen  it  reaches  3  parts  to  1,000  of  the  blood,  will  begin 
to  pass  off  by  the  kidneys  and  appear  in  the  urine.  On  the 
other  hand,  if  an  undue  amount  of  it  is  formed,  the  consumption 
remaining  normal,  it  will  also  accumulate  in  the  circulation,  and 
be  eliminated  by  the  kidneys.  In  either  case  we  have  diabetes, 
the  sugar  irritating  and  diseasing  the  kidneys  as  it  passes." 

Dr.  Harley,  of  the  Royal  Society  of  London,  has 
made  the  subject  of  alcohol  and  diabetes,  matter  for 
considerable  study.  He  says  a  small  quantity  only 
of  alcohol  injected  into  the  portal  (liver)  circulation 
of  healthy  animals  will  cause  diabetic  urine. 

"If  any  one  doubt  the  truth  of  the  assertion  that  alcohol 
causes  diabetes,  let  him  select  a  case  of  that  form  of  the  disease 
arising  from  excessive  formation,  and  after  having  carefully  esti- 
mated the  daily  amount  of  sugar  eliminated  by  the  patient, 
allow  him  to  drink  a  few  glasses  of  wine,  and  watch  the  result. 


ALCOHOL   AS   A   MEDICINE.  89 

He  will  soon  find  the  ingestion  of  the  liquor  is  followed  by  an 
increase  of  sugar.  If  alcoholics  increase  the  amount  of  sac- 
charine matter  in  the  urine  of  the  diabetic,  we  can  easily  under- 
stand how  their  excessive  use  may  induce  the  disease  in 
individuals  predisposed  to  it." — Dr.  Harley. 

Some  physicians  claim  that  in  jaundice  and  cer- 
tain other  bilious  disorders  even  medicines  prepared 
in  alcohol  are  decidedly  prejudicial  and  aggravating. 

Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg,  and  other  writers  draw  atten- 
tion to  the  effects  of  alcohol  in  hindering  the  liver 
in  its  duty  of  destroying  the  toxic  substances  gen- 
erated within  the  system  of  a  sick  person  by  the 
specific  microbes  to  which  the  disease  owes  its 
origin,  saying  that  the  activity  of  the  liver  in  de- 
stroying these  poisons  is  one  of  the  physiologic 
processes  which  stand  between  the  patient  and 
death. 

The  more  this  question  is  studied  the  more  ap- 
parent is  it  that,  other  things  being  equal,  the  sick 
person  who  is  cared  for  by  a  non-alcoholic  phy- 
sician has  a  much  better  chance  of  recovery  than  the 
one  dosed  by  "  a  brandy  doctor." 

EFFECTS   OF   ALCOHOL   UPON   THE   KIDNEYS. 

"The  kidneys,  being  the  chief  organs  for  the  excretion  of 
nitrogen  waste,  are  among  the  most  important  organs  of  the 
body.  Any  defect  in  their  healthy  activity  leads  to  serious  in- 
terference with  the  working  of  many  organs,  due  to  the  accu- 
mulation in  the  body  of  nitrogenous  waste  products.  If  both 
kidneys  be  cut  out  of  an  animal,  it  dies  in  a  few  hours  from 
blood-poisoning,  due  to  the  accumulation  of  waste  poisonous 


90  ALCOHOL  AS  A    MEDICINE. 

substances  which  the  kidneys  should  have  got  rid  of.  Serious 
kidney-disease  amounts  to  pretty  much  the  same  thing  as  cut- 
ting out  the  organs,  since  they  are  of  little  use  if  not  healthy. 
It  is  always  fatal  if  not  checked,  and  often  kills  in  a  short  time. 
The  things  which  most  frequently  cause  kidney  disease  are  un- 
due exposure  to  cold,  and  indulgence  in  alcoholic  drinks." — 
Martin's  Human  Body. 

"  The  kidneys  are  supplied  with  arterial  blood,  which,  having 
given  up  water,  urea,  salt,  and  certain  other  substances,  either 
secreted  or  simply  strained  from  it,  returns  to  the  kidneys 
nearly  as  bright  and  fresh  as  when  it  entered  them.  While  the 
lungs  are  concerned  in  removing  carbonic  acid — the  ashes  of 
the  furnace — it  is  the  peculiar  province  of  the  kidneys  to  remove 
the  products  of  the  wear  and  tear  of  the  bodily  machinery — the 
wasted  nerve  and  muscle — in  the  form  of  urea,  or  other  crystal- 
lizable  substances,  the  presence  of  which  in  the  economy  for 
any  considerable  time  is  attended  with  disastrous  results. 

"  Now,  nature  has  put  these  organs,  charged  with  so  impor- 
tant work,  as  far  away  as  possible  from  any  source  of  irritation. 
Could  alcohol  get  as  direct  access  to  them  as  to  the  liver,  there 
is  no  doubt  that  their  function  would  be  destroyed  almost  at 
once,  since  the  change  in  arterial  blood  by  alcohol  is  much 
more  extensive  and  damaging  than  that  wrought  in  such  venous 
blood  as  the  liver  receives  from  the  portal  veins.  Thus  while 
the  liver  takes  the  alcohol  immediately  from  the  alimentary 
canal,  the  kidneys  receive  it  only  after  it  has  passed  through 
the  liver,  the  heart,  the  lungs,  and  the  heart  again ;  by  which 
time  much  of  it  has  escaped,  while  the  remainder  has  been 
greatly  diluted  by  the  blood  of  the  general  circulation  ;  yet  com- 
ing to  the  kidneys  even_so  considerably  diluted,  it  has  power  to 
congest,  irritate,  and  excite  them  to  the  excretion  of  an  unusual 
amount  of  the  watery  elements  of  the  urine,  as  if  .to  wash  the 
irritant  away. 

"  But  it  is  only  the  watery  element  that  is  increased,  not  the 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  9 1 

urea,  which  is  the  substance  representing  the  waste  of  vital 
action,  and  is  a  poison  to  the  system  ;  this  it  is  the  special  office  of 
the  kidneys  to  remove.  Not  only  does  alcohol  not  increase 
its  elimination,  but  actually  lessens  the  discharge.  And  should 
the  irritation  of  the  spirit  continue,  or  be  augmented  in  force, 
inflammation  would  follow,  and  the  excretion  of  urea  nearly  or 
entirely  cease  and  life  be  in  the  greatest  jeopardy.  Relief  or 
death  then  must  speedily  follow." — Dr.  E.  Chenery,  of  Bos- 
ton, in  Alcohol  Inside  Out. 

"Alcohol  causes  kidney-disease  in  several  ways.  In  the  first 
place  it  unduly  excites  the  activity  of  the  organs.  Next,  by 
impeding  oxidation  it  interferes  with  the  proper  preparation  of 
nitrogen  wastes  :  they  are  brought  to  the  kidneys  in  an  unfit 
state  for  removal,  and  injure  those  organs.  Third,  when  more 
than  a  small  quantity  of  alcohol  is  taken,  some  of  it  is  passed 
out  of  the  body  unchanged,  through  the  kidneys,  and  injures 
their  substance.  The  kidney-disease  most  commonly  pro- 
duced by  alcohol  is  one  kind  of  "  Bright's  disease,"  so  called 
from  the  physician  who  first  described  it.  The  connective 
tissue  of  the  organ  grows  in  excess,  and  the  true  excreting 
kidney-substance  dwindles  away.  At  last  the  organ  becomes 
quite  unable  to  do  its  work,  and  death  results. 

"  The  three  most  common  causes  of  Bright's  disease  are  an 
acute  illness,  as  scarlet  fever,  of  which  it  is  a  frequent  result ; 
sudden  exposure  to  cold  when  warm  (this  often  drives  blood  in 
excessive  quantity  from  the  skin  to  internal  organs,  and  leads 
to  kidney-disease) ;  and  the  habitual  drinking  of  alcoholic 
liquids."— Dr.  Newell  Martin  in  The  Human  Body. 

"  Every  physician  knows  or  should  know,  that  the  quantity 
and  quality  of  the  effete,  or  waste,  material  separated  from  the 
blood  by  the  kidneys  and  voided  in  the  urine,  is  such  as  to 
render  a  knowledge  of  the  action  of  any  remedy  or  drink  on 
the  function  of  these  organs,  of  the  greatest  importance  in  the 
treatment  of  all  diseases,  and  especially  those  of  an  acute  febrile 
character.     As  was  long  since  demonstrated  by  clinical  obser- 


92  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

vation,  and  more  recently  by  patient  and  accurate  experiments 
by  Bouchard  and  others,  the  amount  of  toxic,  or  poisonous, 
material  naturally  separated  from  the  blood  by  the  kidneys  and 
passed  out  in  the  urine  is  so  great  that  if  wholly  retained  by 
failure  of  the  kidneys  to  act  for  two  or  three  days,  speedy 
death  ensues.  Equally  familiar  to  every  observing  physician  is 
the  fact  that  in  all  the  acute  febrile  and  inflammatory  diseases, 
not  only  is  the  quantity  of  the  urine  secreted  generally  dimin- 
ished, but  its  quality  or  constituency  is  also  changed  to  a 
greater  degree  than  even  its  quantity.  Thus,  some  of  the  more 
important  constituents  are  increased,  others  diminished,  and 
often  new  or  foreign  elements  are  found  present,  all  resulting 
from  the  disordered  metabolic  processes  taking  place  through- 
out the  system  during  the  progress  of  these  diseases. 

"  It  is,  therefore,  hardly  necessary  to  remind  the  physician 
that  it  is  of  the  greatest  importance  to  know  as  correctly  as 
possible  both  the  direct  and  the  indirect  influence  of  every 
medicine  or  drink  on  the  action  of  the  kidneys  and  all  other 
eliminating  organs  and  structures,  lest  he  unwittingly  allow  the 
use  of  such  as  may  not  only  retard  the  elimination  of  the  specific 
causes  of  disease,  but  also  favor  auto-intoxication  by  retarding 
the  elimination  of  the  natural  elements  of  excretion. 

"  That  the  presence  of  alcohol  in  the  living  system  positively 
lessens  the  reception  and  internal  distribution  of  oxygen,  and 
consequently  retards  the  oxidation  processes  of  disassimilation 
by  which  the  various  products  for  excretion  are  perfected  and 
their  elimination  facilitated,  is  so  fully  demonstrated,  both  by 
observation  and  experiment,  as  no  longer  to  admit  of  doubt. 

"  As  nearly  all  the  toxic  elements  of  urine  are  the  results  of 
these  oxidation  processes,  the  presence  of  alcohol  in  the  system 
could  hardly  fail  to  interfere  with  them  in  a  notable  degree. 

"  The  direct  and  somewhat  extensive  series  of  experiments 
instituted  by  Glazer,  as  published  in  the  Dent.  Med.  Woch- 
ensch.,  Leipsic,  Oct.  22,  1891,  demonstrated  this,  as  shown  by 
the  following  conclusions  :    '  Alcohol,  in  even  relatively  moder- 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  93 

ate  quantities,  irritates  the  kidneys,  so  that  the  exudation  of  leu- 
cocytes and  the  formation  of  cylindrical  casts  may  occur.  It 
also  produces  an  unusual  amount  of  uric  acid  crystals  and  oxa- 
lates, due  to  the  modified  tissue  changes  produced  by  the  alcohol. 
The  effect  of  a  single  act  of  over-indulgence  in  alcohol  does  not 
last  more  than  thirty-six  hours,  but  it  is  cumulative  under  con- 
tinued use.' 

"  Dr.  Chittenden  kept  several  dogs  under  the  influence  of 
alcohol  eight  or  ten  days,  and  found  it  to  increase  the  amount 
of  uric  acid  in  their  urine  more  than  ioo  per  cent,  above  the 
normal  proportion. 

"  Mohilansky,  house-physician  to  Manassein's  clinic,  in  the 
conclusions  drawn  from  his  interesting  experiments  on  fifteen 
young  men  to  determine  the  effects  of  alcohol  on  the  metabolic 
processes  generally,  stated  that '  it  does  not  possess  any  diu- 
retic action  ;  but  rather  tends  to  inhibit  the  elimination  of  water 
by  the  kidneys.'  It  is  further  stated  that  this  result  is  owing  to 
the  coincident  effect  of  diminished  systemic  oxidation  and  of 
blood  pressure. 

"  On  the  other  hand,  several  observers  have  reported  that  the 
flow  of  urine  was  increased  by  the  use  of  alcohol.  From  as 
full  an  examination  of  the  subject  as  I  have  been  able  to  make, 
it  appears  that  the  diverse  results  obtained  have  depended  upon 
the  previous  habits  of  those  experimented  on,  and  -the  widely 
i  varying  quantities  of  water  drank  with  the  alcohol.  When  the 
alcohol  is  taken  with  large  quantities  of  water,  as  is  usual  with 
those  who  use  beer  and  fermented  drinks  generally,  the  total 
amount  of  urine  passed  is  usually  increased,  but  not  more  than 
is  found  to  result  from  taking  the  same  quantity  of  water  with- 
out any  alcohol.  When  alcoholic  drinks  are  taken  by  those 
already  habituated  to  its  use,  it  has  less  marked  effect  on  the 
quantity  and  quality  of  the  urine  than  when  taken  by  those  who 
had  previously  been  total  abstainers.  This  was  illustrated  by 
the  experiments  of  Mohilansky  on  the  fifteen  men,  some  of  whom 


94  ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE. 

were  habitual  drinkers,  some  occasional  drinkers,  and  others 
total  abstainers.  When  all  were  subjected  to  the  same  diet  and 
drinks,  with  alcohol,  in  two  the  daily  amount  of  urine  voided  re- 
mained unaltered,  in  five  it  was  increased  seven  per  cent.,  and  in 
eight  it  decreased  twelve  per  cent.  But  whatever  may  be  the  va- 
riations in  the  mere  quantity  of  urine  voided  under  the  influence 
of  alcohol,  the  alterations  in  quality  pretty  uniformly  show  an 
increase  in  the  products  of  imperfect  internal  metamorphosis  or 
oxidation,  such  as  uric  acid,  oxalates,  casts,  leucocytes,  albumen 
and  potassium,  with  less  of  the  normal  products,  as  urea  and 
salts  of  sodium. 

'*  During  the  past  year  I  have  met  with  three  cases  in  which 
the  regular  daily  use  of  alcoholic  drinks  for  several  months,  in 
quantities  not  sufficient  to  produce  intoxication,  had  so  altered 
the  blood,  and  the  renal  function,  that  the  urine  contained  both 
casts  and  albumen,  and  some  degree  of  cedema  was  observable 
in  the  face  and  extremities.  These  changes  were  so  marked  as 
to  justify  a  diagnosis  of  incipient  nephritis,  or  Bright's  disease. 
Yet  after  totally  abstaining  from  the  use  of  alcoholic  drinks 
and  remedies,  and  taking  such  vasomotor  tonics  as  strychnine 
and  digitalis,  with  a  regulated  diet  and  fresh  air,  they  com- 
pletely recovered. 

**  When  it  is  remembered  that  in  diphtheria,  pneumonia  and 
typhoid  fever,  the  acute  diseases  in  which  a  large  part  of  the 
profession  administer  most  freely  alcoholic  remedies,  the  func- 
tion of  the  kidney  is  altered  in  almost  the  same  direction  as  are 
found  to  take  place  under  the  influence  of  alcohol,  it  should 
certainly  cause  every  practitioner  to  pause  and  critically  review 
the  pathological  basis  on  which  he  has  been  prescribing.  An 
anaesthetic,  like  alcohol,  may  certainly  render  a  patient  with 
diphtheria,  pneumonia  or  typhoid  fever  more  quiet,  and  cause 
him  to  say  he  feels  better,  but  if  it  at  the  same  time  diminishes 
the  internal  distribution  of  oxygen,  retards  the  oxidation  and 
elimination  of  waste  and  toxic  products  through  the  kidneys 
and  lungs,  and  lessens  vasomotor  force,  it  cannot  fail  to  pro- 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  9$ 

tract  the  duration  of  disease,  and  increase  the  ratio  of  mortal- 
ity."— Dr.  N.  S.  Davis,  A.  M.  T.  A.  Quarterly,  April,  1894. 

Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg,  by  a  series  of  carefully  executed 
experiments,  conclusively  demonstrated  that  alcohol 
hinders  the  elimination  of  poisonous  matter  by  the 
kidneys.  This  property  of  alcohol  is  one  of  the 
objections  which  he  sees  to  its  use  as  a  medicine. 
He  says : — 

"Water  applied  externally  stimulates  elimination  by  the 
pores  of  the  skin,  and  employed  freely  internally  by  water 
drinking,  and  enemas  to  be  retained  for  absorption,  aids  liver 
and  kidney  activity.  If  the  patient  dies  it  is  because  his  liver 
and  kidneys  have  failed  to  destroy  and  eliminate  the  poisons 
generated  with  sufficient  rapidity  to  prevent  their  producing 
fatal  mischief  in  the  body." 


CHAPTER   VI. 

ALCOHOL  AS    MEDICINE. 

ALTHOUGH  nearly  all  of  the  foremost  scientific 
investigators  of  the  effects  of  alcohol  upon  the  body 
have  altogether,  or  almost,  abandoned  the  use  of 
alcoholic  liquids  as  remedial  agencies,  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  members  of  the  medical  profession 
still  prescribe  these  liquors  as  freely  as  if  no  doubt 
of  their  usefulness  had  ever  been  expressed.  This 
attitude  of  physicians  seems  to  imply  either  indif- 
ference to  the  great  evils  of  intemperance,  or  lack 
of  knowledge  of  what  the  more  progressive  members 
of  the  profession  practice  and  teach. 

The  medical  use  of  alcohol  has  been,  and  still  is, 
the  great  bulwark  of  the  liquor  traffic.  The  user  of 
alcoholics  as  beverages  always  excuses  himself,  if 
hard  pressed  by  abstainers,  upon  the  ground  that 
they  must  be  of  service  or  doctors  would  not  recom- 
mend them  so  frequently.  In  all  prohibitory 
amendment,  and  no-license  campaigns,  the  cry  of 
*  Useful  as  Medicine "  has  been  the  hardest  for 
temperance  workers  to  meet,  for  they  have  felt 
that  they  had  to  admit  the  statement  as  true,  know- 
ing nothing  to  the  contrary.  Indeed,  thousands  of 
those  who  advocate  the  prohibition  of  the  sale  of 
96 


ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE.  97 

liquor  as  a  beverage,  use  alcohol  in  some  form  quite 
freely  as  medicine,  and  are  as  determined  and 
earnest  in  defence  of  their  favorite  "  tipple  "  as  any 
old  toper  could  well  be.  Many  use  it  in  the  guise 
of  cordials,  tonics,  bitters,  restoratives  and  the 
thousand  and  one  nostrums  guaranteed  to  cure  all 
ills  to  which  human  flesh  is  heir. 

The  wide-spread  belief  in  the  necessity  and 
efficacy  of  alcoholics  as  remedies  is  the  greatest 
hindrance  to  the  success  of  the  temperance  cause. 
It  is  impossible  to  convince  the  mass  of  the  people 
that  what  is  life-giving  as  medicine  can  be  death- 
dealing  as  beverage.  The  two  stand,  or  fall, 
together.  Hence  there  is  no  more  important  ques- 
tion before  the  medical  profession,  and  the  people 
generally,  than  that  of  the  action  of  alcohol  in  dis- 
ease, and,  as  a  goodly  number  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished and  successful  physicians  of  Europe  and 
America  declare  it  to  be  harmful  rather  than 
helpful,  it  behooves  thoughtful  people  to  care- 
fully study  the  reasons  they  assign  for  holding 
such  an  opinion.  Certainly  it  is  true  that  if  physi- 
cians and  people  would  all  adopt  the  views  of  the 
advocates  of  non-alcoholic  medication  the  temper- 
ance problem  would  be  solved,  and  the  greatest 
source  of  disease,  crime,  pauperism,  insanity  and 
misery  would  be  driven  from  the  face  of  the  earth. 

To  understand  the  arguments  advanced  in  favor 
of  non-alcoholic  medication  it  is  needful  to  make 
some   study   of    the    effects    of    alcohol    upon  the 


98  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

body,  and  of  the  purposes  for  which  alcoholics  are 
prescribed  medically. 

A  IcoJiol  is  used  in  sickness  as  a  food,  when  solid 
foods  cannot  be  assimilated,  "  to  support  "  or  sustain, 
the  vitality ;  it  is  used  as  a  stimulant,  a  tonic,  a 
sedative  or  narcotic,  an  anti-spasmodic,  an  antiseptic 
and  antipyretic ;  it  is  used  in  combination  with 
other  drugs,  in  tinctures  and  in  pharmacy.  It  is 
not  wonderful  that  the  people  esteem  it  above  all 
other  drugs,  for  none  other  is  so  variously  and  so 
generally  employed.  Those  who  discard  it  as  a 
remedy  teach  that  only  in  human  delusions  is  it  a 
food  or  a  stimulant,  and  for  the  other  uses  to 
which  it  is  put,  outside  of  pharmacy,  there  are 
different  agents  which  may  be  more  satisfactorily 
employed. 

IS   ALCOHOL    FOOD? 

So  well  agreed  are  all  the  scientific  investigators 
that  alcohol  has  no  appreciable  food  value  that  it 
would  seem  foolish  to  spend  time  upon  a  discussion 
of  alcohol  as  food  were  it  not  that  the  idea  of  its 
"supporting  the  vitality"  in  disease,  in  some 
mysterious  way  is  deeply  rooted  in  the  professional, 
as  well  as  the  popular  mind. 

Foods  are  substances  which,  when  taken  into  the 
body,  undergo  change  by  the  process  of  digestion ; 
they  give  strength  and  heat  and  force  ;  they  build 
up  the  tissues  of  the  body,  a?td  make  blood ;  and 
they  induce  healthy,  normal  action  of  all  the  bodily 
functions. 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  99 

Alcohol  does  none  of  these.  It  undergoes  no 
change  in  the  stomach,  but  is  rapidly  absorbed  and 
mixed  with  the  blood,  and  has  been  discovered 
hours  after  its  ingestion  in  the  brain,  blood  and 
tissues,  unchanged  alcohol.  In  many  of  the  experi- 
ments made  with  it  upon  animals,  considerable 
quantities  of  the  amount  swallowed  were  recovered 
from  the  excretions  of  the  body,  without  any 
change  having  taken  place  in  its  composition. 
This,  of  itself,  is  sufficient  evidence  to  show  that  it 
is  a  substance  which  the  body  does  not  recognize 
as  a  food. 

Foods  buildup  the  tissues  of  the  body.  All  phys- 
iologists are  agreed  that  since  alcohol  contains  no 
nitrogen  it  cannot  be  a  tissue-forming  food  ;  there 
is  no  difference  of  opinion  here.  Dr.  Lionel  Beale, 
the  eminent  physiologist,  says  that  alcohol  is  not  a 
food  and  does  not  nourish  the  tissues. 

"  There  is  nothing  in  alcohol  with  which  any  part  of  the  body 
can  be  nourished." — Cameron's  Manual  of  Hygiene. 

"  Alcohol  contains  no  nitrogen  ;  it  has  none  of  the  qualities 
of  the  structure-building  foods;  it  is  incapable  of  being  trans- 
formed into  any  of  them  ;  it  does  not  supply  caseine,  albumen, 
fibrine  or  any  other  of  those  substances  which  go  to  build' up 
the  muscles,  nerves  and  other  active  organs." — Sir  B.  W.  j 
Richardson. 

"  It  is  not  demonstrable  that  alcohol  undergoes  conversion 
into  tissue." — Dr.  W.  A.  Hammond. 

If  it  is  a  food  why  do  all  writers  and  experiment- 
ers exclude  it  from  the  diet  of  children,  and  why  is 


IOO  ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE. 

the  caution  always  given  people  to  not  take  it  upon 
an  empty  stomach  ?  Foods  are  supposed  to  be 
particularly  suited  to  an  empty  stomach. 

Foods  induce  healthy,  normal  action  of  all  the  bodily 
functions. 

The  chapter  upon  "  Diseases  Produced  by  Alco- 
hol "  is  evidence  that  by  this  test  alcohol  shows 
up  in  its  true  nature  as  a  poison,  and  not  a  food. 
Alcohol  destroys  healthy  normal  action  of  all  the 
bodily  functions,  and  builds  up  impure  fat,  fatty 
degeneration,  instead  of  strong,  firm  muscle.  Dr. 
Parkes,  one  of  the  most  famous  of  English  students 
of  alcohol,  says  : — 

"  These  alcoholic  degenerations  are  certainly  not  confined  to 
the  notoriously  intemperate.  I  have  seen  them  in  women  ac- 
customed to  take  wine  in  quantities  not  excessive,  and  who 
would  have  been  shocked  at  the  imputation  that  they  were 
taking  too  much,  although  the  result  proved  that  for  them  it. 
was  excess." 

Dr.  Ezra  M.  Hunt,  late  secretary  of  New  Jersey 
State  Board  of  Health,  remarks : — 

"  The  question  of  excess  occurs  in  sickness  as  well  as  in 
health,  and  all  the  more  because  its  determination  is  so  difficult 
and  the  evil  effects  so  indisputable.  The  dividing  line  in  medi- 
cine, even  between  use  and  abuse,  is  so  zigzag  and  invisible  that 
common  mortals,  in  groping  for  it,  generally  stumble  beyond  it, 
and  the  delicate  perception  of  medical  art  too  often  fails  in  the 
recognition." 

All  non-alcoholic  writers  assert  that  the  continu- 
ous use  of  alcohol  as  a  medicine  is  equally  injurious 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  IOI 

to  all  the  bodily  functions  as  the  employment  of  It 
as  a  beverage.  Calling  it  medicine  does  not  change 
its  deadly  nature,  nor  does  the  medical  attendant 
possess  any  magical  power  by  which  a  destructive 
poison  may  be  converted  into  a  restorative  agent. 

Dr.  Noble,  wrriting  recently  to  the  London  Times, 
said  : — 

"  The  internal  use  of  alcohol  in  disease  is  as  injurious  as  in 
health." 

Since  foods  induce  healthy,  normal  action  of  alL 
the  bodily  functions,  and  alcohol  injures  every  organ 
of  the  body  in  direct  proportion  to  the  amount  con- 
sumed, by  this  test  it  is  proved  to  not  be  a  food. 

Foods  give  strength.  Alcohol  weakens  the  body. 
This  has  been  determined  again  and  again  by  ex- 
periments upon  gangs  of  workmen  and  regiments 
of  soldiers.  These  experiments  always  resulted  in 
showing  that  upon  the  days  when  the  men  were 
supplied  with  liquor  they  could  neither  use  their 
muscles  so  powerfully,  nor  for  so  long  a  time,  as  on 
the  days  when  they  received  no  alcoholic  drink. 
Of  the  results  of  such  tests  Sir  Andrew  Clark,  late 
Physician  to  Queen  Victoria,  said  : — 

"  It  is  capable  of  proof  beyond  all  possibility  of  question  that .. 
alcohol  not  only  does  not  help  work  but  is  a  serious  hinderer 
of  work." 

So  satisfied  are  generals  in  the  British  army  of 
the  weakening  effect  of  alcohol  that  its  use  is  now 
forbidden  to  soldiers  when  any  considerable  call  is 


102  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

to  be  made  upon  their  strength.  The  latest  ex- 
ample of  this  was  in  the  recent  Soudan  campaign 
under  Sir  Herbert  Kitchener.  An  order  was  issued 
by  the  War  Department  that  not  a  drop  of  intoxi- 
cating liquor  was  to  be  allowed  in  camp  save  for 
hospital  use.  The  army  made  phenomenal  forced 
marches  through  the  desert,  under  a  burning  sun 
and  in  a  climate  famous  for  its  power  to  kill  the 
unacclimated.  It  is  said  that  never  before  was 
there  a  British  campaign  occasioning  so  little  sick- 
ness and  showing  so  much  endurance.  Some 
Greek  merchants  ran  a  large  consignment  of  liquors 
through  by  the  Berber-Suakim  route,  but  Sir  Her- 
bert had  them  emptied  upon  the  sand  of  the  desert. 
A  reporter  telegraphed  to  England  : — 

"  The  men  are  in  magnificent  condition  and  in  great  spirits. 
They  are  as  hard  as  nails,  and  in  a  recent  desert  march  of 
fifteen  miles,  with  manoeuvring  instead  of  halts,  the  whole  last- 
ing for  five  continuous  hours,  not  a  single  man  fell  out !  " 

This  was  in  decided  contrast  to  the  march  in  the 
African  war  some  years  before  when,  as  they  passed 
through  a  malarial  district,  and  a  dram  was  served, 
men  fell  out  by  dozens.  Dr.  Parkes,  one  of  the 
medical  officers,  prevailed  upon  the  commander-in- 
chief  to  not  allow  any  more  alcoholic  drams  while 
the  troops  were  marching  to  Kumassi. 

Experiments  in  lifting  weights  have  also  been 
tried  upon  men  by  careful  investigators.  In  every 
case  it  was  found  that  even  beer,  and  very  dilute 
solutions  of  alcohol,  would  diminish  the  height  to 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  IO3 

which  the  lifted  weight  could  be  raised.  As  an  il- 
lustration of  the  deceptive  power  of  alcohol  upon 
people  under  its  influence,  it  is  said  that  persons 
experimented  upon  were  under  the  impression,  after 
the  drink,  that  they  could  do  more  work,  and  do  it 
more  easily,  although  the  testing-machine  showed 
exactly  the  contrary  to  be  true. 

Athletes  and  their  trainers  have  learned  by  ex- 
perience that  alcohol  does  not  give  strength,  but  is, 
in  reality,  a  destroyer  of  muscular  power.  No  care- 
ful trainer  will  allow  a  candidate  for  athletic  honors 
to  drink  even  beer,  not  to  speak  of  stronger  liquors. 
When  Sullivan,  the  once  famous  pugilist,  was  de- 
feated by  Corbett,  he  said  in  lamenting  his  lost 
championship,  "  It  was  the  booze  did  it  "  ;  meaning 
that  he  had  violated  training  rules,  and  used  liquor. 
University  teams  and  crews  have  proved  substan- 
tially that  drinking  men  are  absolutely  no  good  in 
sports,  or  upon  the  water.  Football  and  baseball 
teams,  anxious  to  excel,  are  beginning  to  have  a 
cast-iron  temperance  pledge  for  their  members.  So 
practical  experience  of  those  competing  in  tests  of 
strength  and  endurance  teach  eloquently  that 
alcohol  does  not  give  strength,  but  rather  weakens 
the  body,  by  rendering  the  muscles  flabby. 

Sandow,  the  modern  Samson,  wrote  his  methods 
of  training  in  one  of  the  magazines  a  few  years  ago, 
and  stated  that  he  used  no  alcoholic  beverages. 
The  ancient  Samson  was  not  allowed  to  taste  even 
wine  from  birth. 


104  ALCOHOL   AS   A   MEDICINE. 

A  question  worthy  of  serious  consideration  is: 
how  are  the  sick  to  be  strengthened  and  "  sup- 
ported "  by  drinks  which  athletes  are  warned  to 
specially  shun  as  weakening  to  the  body  ?  Either 
the  sick  are  mistakenly  advised-,  or  the  athletes  are 
in  error.     Which  seems  the  more  likely  ? 

Dr.  Richardson  says  in  Lectures  on  Alcohol : — 
"  I  would  earnestly  impress  that  the  systematic  administration 
of  alcohol  for  the  purpose  of  giving  and  sustaining  strength  is 
an  entire  delusion." 

In  another  place  he  says  : — 

"  Never  let  this  be  forgotten  in  thinking  of  strong  drink  :  that 
the  drink  is  strong  only  to  destroy ;  that  it  never  by  any  pos- 
sibility adds  strength  to  those  who  drink  it." 

Sir  William  Gull,  late  physician  to  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  said  before  a  Select  Committee  of  the  House 
of  Lords  on  Intemperance  : — 

"  There  is  a  great  feeling  in  society  that  strong  wine  and 
other  strong  drinks  give  strength.  A  large  number  of  people 
have  fallen  into  that  error,  and  fall  into  it  every  day." 

Any  unprejudiced  person  can  readily  see  that  ex- 
perience and  experiment  unite  in  testifying  that 
alcohol  does  not  give  strength,  hence  differs  rad- 
ically from  most  substances  commonly  classed  as 
foods.  Yet  millions  of  dollars  are  spent  annually 
by  deluded  people  upon  supposedly  strength-giving 
drinks,  and  thousands  of  the  sick  are  ignorantly,  or 
carelessly,  advised  to  take  beer  or  wine  to  make 
them  strong  and  to  support  them  when  solid  fo^ 
cannot  be  assimilated.  Truly,  "  My  people  is  de- 
stroyed for  lack  of  knowledge." 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  10$ 

Foods  give  force  to  the  body. 
Dr.  Richardson  says  : — 

"We  learn  in  respect  to  alcohol  that  the  temporary  excite- 
ment is  produced  at  the  expense  of  the  animal  matter  and 
animal  force,  and  that  the  ideas  of  the  necessity  of  resorting 
to  it  as  a  food,  to  build  up  the  body  or  to  lift  up  the  forces  of 
the  body,  are  ideas  as  solemnly  false  as  they  are  widely  dis- 
seminated." 

Dr.  Benjamin  Brodie  says  in  Physiological  In- 
quiries : — 

"  Stimulants  do  not  create  nerve  power ;  they  merely  enable 
you,  as  it  were,  to  use  up  that  which  is  left." 

Dr.  E.  Smith:— 

"  There  is  no  evidence  that  it  increases  nervous  influence, 
while  there  is  much  evidence  that  it  lessens  nervous  power." 

Dr.  Win.  Hargreaves,  of  Philadelphia  : — 

"  It  is  sometimes  said  by  the  advocates  and  defenders  of 
alcohol,  that  by  its  use  force  is  generated  more  abundantly. 
This  it  certainly  cannot  do,  as  it  does  not  furnish  anything  to 
feed  the  blood  or  to  store  up  nourishment  to  replenish  the 
expenditure.  For  by  their  own  theory,  the  increase  of  action 
must  cause  an  increase  of  wear  and  tear ;  hence  alcohol 
instead  of  sustaining  life  or  vitality,  must  cause  a  direct  waste 
or  expenditure  of  vital  force." 

Dr.  Auguste  Forel,  of  Switzerland : — 

"  All  alcoholic  liquors  are  poisons,  and  especially  brain- 
poisons,  and  their  use  shortens  life.  They  cannot  therefore  be 
regarded  as  sources  of  nourishment  or  force.  They  should  be 
resisted  as  much  as  opium,  morphia,  cocaine,  hashish  and 
the  like." 


106  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

Dr.  W.  F.  Pechuman,  of  Detroit,  in  his  valuable 
little  treatise,  Alcohol — Is  it  a  Medicine  ?  says 
clearly : — 

"  When  alcohol  or  any  other  irritant  poison  is  put  into  the 
system,  the  conservative  vital  force,  recognizing  it  as  an  enemy, 
at  once  makes  an  effort  through  the  living  matter  to  rid  the 
system  of  the  offender  ; — the  heart  increases  in  action  and  new 
strength  seems  to  appear.  Now,  right  here  is  where  the  great 
mass  of  people  and  a  large  number  of  physicians  are  deluded. 
They  mistake  the  extra  effort  of  the  vital  force  to  preserve  the 
body  against  harmful  agencies  for  an  actual  increase  in 
strength  as  the  result  of  the  agent  given  ;  we  wonder  that  they 
can  be  so  blind  as  not  to  see  the  reaction  which  invariably 
occurs  soon  after  the  administration  of  their  so-called  stimu- 
lant." 

Dr.  F.  R.  Lees,  of  England  : — 

"  All  poisons  lessen  vitality  and  deteriorate  the  ultimate 
tissue  in  which  force  is  reposited.  Alcohol  is  an  agent,  the 
sole,  perpetual  and  inevitable  effects  of  which  are  to  avert 
blood  development,  to  retain  waste  matter,  to  irritate  mucous 
and  other  tissues,  to  thicken  normal  juices,  to  impede  diges- 
tion, to  deaden  nervous  sensibility,  to  lower  animal  heat,  to 
kill  molecular  life,  and  to  waste,  through  the  excitement  it 
creates  in  heart  and  head,  the  grand  controlling  forces  of  the 
nerves  and  brain." 

If  alcohol  is  a  destroyer  of  bodily  force,  as  any 
ordinary  observer  of  drinking  men  can  readily  see, 
it  is  a  problem  beyond  solving,  how  it  is  going  to 
give  force  to,  or  sustain  vitality  in,  the  patient 
hovering  between  life  and  death.  Too  often  has  it 
been  the  means  of  hastening  into  eternity  those 
who,  but  for  its  mistaken  use,  might  have  recovered 
from  the  illness  affecting  then. 


ALCOHOL  AS  A  MEDICINE.  107 

Food  gives  heat  to  the  body. 

Alcohol  does  not,  but  really  robs  the  body  of  its 
natural  warmth.  This  finding  of  science  was  re- 
ceived with  the  utmost  incredulity  when  first 
presented  to  the  medical  world,  but  the  invention 
of  the  clinical  thermometer  settled  it  beyond  con- 
troversy. It  is  now  believed  by  all  but  a  very  few 
of  those  who  have  knowledge  of  the  physiological 
effects  of  alcohol.  While  Dr.  N.  S.  Davis,  of 
Chicago,  was  the  first  to  demonstrate  this  fact,  it 
was  Dr.  B.  W.  Richardson,  of  England,  who  succeed- 
ed in  putting  it  prominently  before  the  attention 
of  physicians. 

The  normal  temperature  of  the  human  body  is  a 
little  over  98  degrees  by  Fahrenheit's  thermometer. 
If  the  temperature  is  found  to  be  much  above  or 
below  98  degrees  the  person  is  considered  out  of 
health  ;  indeed  by  this  condition  alone  physicians 
are  able  to  detect  serious  forms  of  disease.  By  the 
use  of  the  clinical  thermometer,  placed  under  the 
tongue,  it  is  easy  to  determine  what  agents  acting 
upon  the  body  will  cause  the  temperature  to  vary 
from  the  natural  standard.  When  alcohol  is  swal- 
lowed there  is  at  first  a  decided  feeling  of  warmth 
induced ;  if  the  temperature  be  taken  now  it  will 
be  found  that  in  a  person  unaccustomed  to  alcohol 
the  warmth  may  be  raised  half  a  degree ;  in  one 
accustomed  to  alcohol  the  warmth  may  be  raised 
a  full  degree,  or  even  a  degree  and  a  half  beyond 
the  natural  standard.  But  this  warmth  is  only 
temporary,  and  is  soon  succeeded  by  chilliness. 


108  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

Dr.  Richardson  says   in    his    Temperance   Lesson 

Book : — 

"  The  sense  of  warmth  occurs  in  the  following  way :  When 
the  alcohol  enters  the  body,  and  by  the  blood-vessels  is  conveyed 
to  all  parts  of  the  body,  it  reduces  the  nervous  power  of  the 
small  blood-vessels  which  are  spread  out  through  the  whole  of 
the  surface  of  the  skin.  In  their  weakened  state  these  vessels 
are  unable  duly  to  resist  the  course  of  blood  which  is  coming 
into  them  from  the  heart  under  its  stroke.  The  result  is  that 
an  excess  of  warm  blood  fresh  from  the  heart  is  thrown  into 
these  fine  vessels,  which  causes  the  skin  to  become  flushed  and 
red  as  it  is  seen  to  be  after  wine  or  other  strong  drink  has 
been  swallowed  and  sent  through  the  body.  So,  as  there  is 
now  more  warm  blood  in  the  skin  than  is  natural  to  it,  a  sense 
of  increased  warmth  is  felt.  The  skin  of  the  body  is  the  most 
sensitive  of  substances  and  the  sense  of  warmth  through,  or 
over  the  whole  surface  of  the  skin  is  conveyed  from  it  to  the 
brain  and  nervous  centres  of  the  body,  by  which  we  are  enabled 
to  feel. 

"  The  warmth  of  surface  which  seems  to  be  imparted  by 
alcohol,  only  seems  to  be  imparted.  Positively  the  warmth  is 
not  imparted  by  the  alcohol,  but  is  set  free  by  it. 

"  In  a  short  time  the  sense  of  warmth  is  succeeded  by  a  feel- 
ing of  slight  chilliness.  Unless  the  person  is  in  a  very  warm 
room,  or  has  recently  partaken  of  food,  the  thermometer  will 
now  show  a  decided  decrease  in  temperature,  reaching  often  to 
a  degree.  Should  the  person  go  out  into  a  cold  air,  and 
especially  should  he  go  into  a  cold  air  while  badly  supplied  with 
food,  the  fall  of  temperature  may  reach  to  two  degrees  below  the 
natural  standard  of  bodily  heat.  In  this  state  he  easily  takes 
cold,  and  in  frosty  weather  readily  contracts  congestion  of  the 
lungs,  and  that  disease  which  is  known  as  bronchitis.  If  the 
person  drinks  to  drunkenness  his  temperature  will  be  found  to 
be  from  two  and  a  half   to   three   degrees  below   the  natural 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  IO9 

standard.  It  takes  from  two  to  three  days,  under  the  most 
favorable  circumstances,  for  the  animal  warmth  to  become 
steadily  re-established  after  a  drunken  spree. 

'*  The  excitement  of  the  mind  in  the  early  stages  of  drunken- 
ness is  not  natural ;  it  is  exhaustive  of  the  bodily  powers,  and 
exhaustive  for  no  useful  purpose  whatever.  ***** 

"  As  nothing-  has  been  supplied  by  the  alcohol  to  keep  up  the 
supply  of  heat  the  vital  energy  is  rapidly  exhausted,  and  if  the 
person  is  exposed  to  cold,  the  exhaustion  becomes  extreme, 
sometimes  fatal.  All  great  consumers  of  alcohol  are  chillier 
during  winter  than  are  abstainers,  and  as  they  labor  under  the 
delusion  that  they  must  take  wine  or  ale  or  spirits  to  keep 
them  warm,  they  keep  on  making  matters  worse  by  constantly 
resorting  to  their  enemy  for  relief." 

Dr.  Newell  Martin  makes  this  very  clear  in  his 
physiology,  The  Human  Body. 

"Our  feeling  of  being  warm  depends  on  the  nerves  of  the 
skin.  We  have  no  nerves  which  tell  us  whether  heart  or 
muscles  or  brain,  are  warmer  or  cooler.  These  inside  parts 
are  always  hotter  than  the  skin,  and  if  blood  which  has  been 
made  hot  in  them  flows  in  large  quantity  to  the  skin,  we  feel 
warmer  because  the  skin  is  heated.  As  alcoholic  drinks  make 
more  blood  flow  through  the  skin,  they  often  make  a  man  feel 
warmer.  But  their  actual  effect  upon  the  temperature  of  the 
whole  body  is  to  lower  it.  The  more  blood  that  flows  through 
the  skin,  the  more  heat  is  given  off  from  the  body  to  the  air, 
and  the  more  blood,  so  cooled,  is  sent  back  to  the  internal 
organs.  The  consequence  is  that  alcohol,  in  proportion  to  the 
amount  taken,  cools  the  body  as  a  whole,  though  it  may  for  a 
time  heat  the  skin." 

If  other  evidence  that  alcohol  is  not  heat-produc- 
ing in  the  body  were  necessary  it  could  be  found  in 
the  fact  that  the   products  of  combustion  are  de« 


IIO  ALCOHOL   AS    A    MEDICINE. 

creased  when  it  is  present  in  the  body.  The 
quantity  of  carbonic  acid  exhaled  by  the  breath  is 
proportionately  diminished  with  the  decline  of 
animal  heat. 

Arctic  explorers  learned  by  experience  what 
science  discovered  by  experiment.  Dr.  Hayes,  the 
explorer,  says  : — 

"  While  fresh  animal  food,  and  especially  fat,  is  absolutely 
essential  to  the  inhabitants  and  travelers  in  Arctic  countries, 
alcohol,  in  almost  any  shape,  is  not  only  completely  useless,  but 
positively  injurious." 

Lieutenant  Johnson,  who  accompanied  Nansen 
upon  his  northern  expedition,  said,  when  inter- 
viewed by  a  reporter  of  the  London  Daily  News : — 

"  The  common  opinion  that  alcohol  becomes  in  some  way  a 
necessity  in  cold  countries  is  entirely  a  mistaken  one.  This 
has  been  conclusively  proved  by  the  expedition.  In  making  up 
his  list  of  the  Frams  equipments,  Nansen  did  not  include 
any  spirits,  with  the  exception  of  some  spirits  of  wine  for  lamps 
and  stoves." 

In  the  list  of  stores  taken  upon  the  long  sledging 
expedition  after  leaving  the  Fram  no  liquors  are 
mentioned.  See  Farthest  North,  by  Nansen.  The 
omission  of  spirits  was  not  because  of  any  "  tem- 
perance fanaticism,"  but  because  the  experience  of 
former  Arctic  expeditions  had  shown  clearly  that 
men  freeze  more  readily  after  partaking  of  alcohol 
than  when  they  totally  abstain  from  it. 

That  wine  is  not  a  fuel-food  was  shown  conclu- 
sively in  the  Franco-Prussian  war  during  the  siege 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  Ill 

of  Paris.  Food  was  scarce  in  the  French  army, 
and  wine  was  liberally  supplied.  The  men  com- 
plained bitterly  of  the  extreme  chilliness  which 
affected  them.  Dr.  Klein,  a  French  staff  surgeon, 
was  reported  in  the  Medical  Temperance  Journal  of 
England,  October,  1873,  as  saying  of  this  :— 

"  We  found  most  decidedly  that  alcohol  was  no  substitute  for 
bread  and  meat.  We  also  found  that  it  was  no  substitute  for 
coals.  We  of  the  army  had  to  sleep  outside  Paris  on  the  frozen 
ground.  We  had  plenty  of  alcohol,  but  it  did  not  make  us 
warm.  Let  me  tell  you  there  is  nothing  that  will  make  you 
feel  the  cold  more,  nothing  which  will  make  you  feel  the  dread- 
ful sense  of  hunger  more,  than  alcohol." 

There  is  no  evidence  against  alcohol  stronger 
than  that  which  shows  it  to  be  not  heat-producing, 
as  commonly  believed,  but  a  reducer  of  heat  in  the 
body.  Indeed,  this  question  of  bodily  temperature 
is  used  in  recent  times  to  decide  whether  a  man 
who  has  fallen  upon  the  street  is  troubled  by  apo- 
plexy, or  influenced  by  alcoholism.  If  the  clinical 
thermometor  shows  the  temperature  to  be  above 
normal,  it  is  apoplexy ;  if  below  normal,  it  is  al- 
coholism. 

"Alcohol  is  clearly  proved  to  not  be  a  fuel-food,  for  if  it  were 
it  would  enable  the  body  to  resist  cold,  instead  of  making  it 
colder  ;  and  in  the  extreme  degrees  of  cold  it  would  go  on 
burning  like  other  fuel-foods,  and  would  maintain,  instead  of 
helping  to  destroy,  life." — Richardson's  Lesson  Book. 

Yet  because  it  creates  a  glow  of  warmth  in  the 
skin    immediately  after   drinking   it,  thousands   of 


112  ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE. 

people  will  discredit  all  evidence  that  it  is  a  reducer 
of  bodily  heat.  Clinical  thermometers,  and  after- 
sensations  of  chilliness,  are  unheeded,  for  "  Wine  is 
a  mocker,"  and  multitudes  are  willing  to  be  deceived 
by  it. 

So,  also,  with  the  conclusions  against  it  as  a 
strengthening  agent ;  because  it  dulls  the  sense  of 
hunger  and  of  fatigue,  those  who  crave  it  will  de- 
clare in  the  face  of  all  scientific  testimony  that  it 
strengthens  them,  and  takes  the  place  of  food. 
They  will  cite,  too,  the  cases  of  people  who  "  lived 
upon  whisky"  during  an  illness  of  greater  or  less 
duration.  Of  the  sustaining  of  life  upon  alcohol 
only,  Dr.  N.  S.  Davis  has  said  : — 

"  The  falsity  of  all  such  stories  is  made  apparent  by  the  fact 
that  nineteen-twentieths  of  all  the  alcoholic  drinks  given  to  the 
sick  are  given  in  connection  with  sugar,  milk,  eggs  or  meat- 
broths,  which  furnish  the  nutriment,  and  would  support  the 
patients  better  if  given  with  the  same  perseverance  without  the 
alcohol  than  with  it.  While  we  have  quite  a  number  of  exam- 
ples of  men  living  on  nothing  but  water  forty  or  fifty  days,  I 
have  never  seen  or  learned  of  a  well-authenticated  case  of  a 
man's  taking  or  receiving  into  his  system  nothing  but  alcohol 
for  half  of  that  length  of  time,  without  becoming  sick  with  either 
gastro-duodenitis,  nephritis,  or  delirium  tremens." 

Some  of  the  defenders  of  the  medicinal  use  of 
alcohol  claim  that  since  it  lias  been  shoivn  to  reduce 
tissue  waste  it  should  be  classed  as  an  indirect  food,  a 
conserver  of  tissue.  Of  this  claim,  Dr.  N.  S.  Davis 
says  in  the  Bulletin  of  the  A.M.  T.  A.,  November, 
1895:- 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  113 

"  A  careful  study  of  the  conditions  and  processes  necessary 
for  both  tissue  building  or  nutrition,  and  tissue  waste  or  dis- 
integration, in  all  the  higher  order  of  animals,  will  show  that 
neither  process  can  be  materially  retarded  without  retarding  or 
preventing  the  other.  Both  processes  take  place  only  in  bioplasm 
or  vitalized  matter,  supplied  with  oxygen,  water  and  heat. 
Neither  the  assimilation  of  new  material  food,  nor  its  use  in 
tissue  building  can  be  effected  without  the  presence  of  free 
oxygen  and  nuclein,  or  corpuscular  elements  of  the  blood. 
And  without  the  presence  of  the  same  elements  we  can  have 
no  natural  tissue  disintegration  and  removal  of  the  waste. 
The  processes  of  tissue  building  and  tissue  disintegration,  are 
therefore,  so  intimately  related,  and  dependent  upon  the  same 
materials  and  forces,  that  neither  can  be  hastened  or  retarded 
from  day  to  day  without  influencing  the  other.  When  alcohol 
or  any  other  substance,  introduced  into  the  blood,  retards  the 
tissue  waste,  as  shown  by  the  diminished  amount  of  excretory 
products,  it  must  do  so  by  either  diminishing  the  amount  of 
free  oxygen  in  the  blood,  by  impairing  the  vasomotor  and 
trophic  nerve  functions  or  by  direct  impairment  of  the  prop- 
erties of  the  nuclein  or  protogen  elements  of  the  blood  and 
tissues.  The  popular  idea,  both  in  and  out  of  the  profession  is, 
that  the  alcohol,  by  further  oxidation  in  the  blood,  lessens  the 
amount  of  oxygen  to  act  on  the  tissues,  and  generates  heat  or 
'  some  kind  of  force.'  Those  who  advocate  this  theory  of  saving 
the  tissues  by  combining  the  oxygen  with  alcohol  seem  to  for- 
get that  in  doing  so  they  are  diverting  and  using  up  the  only 
agent,  oxygen,  capable  of  combining  with,  and  promoting  the 
elimination  of,  all  natural  waste  products  as  well  as  the 
various  toxic  elements  causing  disease. 

"  But  the  theory  that  alcohol  directly  combines  with  the 
oxygen  of  the  blood  by  which  it  would  be  converted1  into  car- 
bonic acid  and  water  with  evolution  of  heat  is  completely 
refuted  by  the  well-known  fact  that  its  presence  in  the  blood 
diminishes  both  temperature  and  elimination  of  carbonic  acid 


114  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

as  already  stated.  Physiologists  of  the  present  day  very  gener- 
ally agree  that  the  capacity  of  the  blood  to  receive  oxygen  from 
the  lungs,  and  convey  it  to  the  systemic  capillaries  and  various 
tissues,  depends  chiefly  on  its  hemoglobin  (red  coioring  matter), 
protein,  or  albuminous  and  saline  elements. 

"  Both  experimental  and  clinical  facts  in  abundance  show 
that  alcohol  at  all  ordinary  temperatures  displays  a  much 
stronger  affinity  for  these  elements  of  the  blood  and  tissues, 
than  it  does  for  oxygen.  And  when  present  in  the  blood,  it 
rapidly  attracts  both  water  and  hemoglobin  from  the  cor- 
puscular and  albuminoid  elements  of  that  fluid,  and  thereby 
diminishes  its  reception  and  distribution  of  oxygen.  We  are 
thus  enabled  to  see  clearly  how  the  alcohol  diminishes  the 
oxygenation  and  decarbonization  of  the  blood,  and  retards  all 
tissue  changes  both  of  nutrition  and  waste  without  itself  under- 
going oxidation  with  evolution  of  heat.  Consequently,  instead 
of  acting  as  a  shield  or  conservator  of  the  tissues  by  simply 
combining  with  the  oxygen,  the  alcohol  directly  impairs  the 
properties  and  functions  of  the  most  highly  vitalized  elements 
of  the  blood  itself,  and  thereby  not  only  retards  tissue  waste 
but  also  equally  retards  the  highest  grades  of  nutrition,  and 
favors  only  sclerotic,  fatty  and  molecular  degenerations,  as  we 
see  everywhere  resulting  from  its  continued  use.  Can  an  agent 
displaying  such  properties  and  effects  be  called  a  food,  either 
direct  or  indirect,  without  a  total  disregard  for  the  proper 
meaning  of  words  ?  " 

In  another  place  he  says : — 

"  This  lessening  of  the  elimination  of  tissue  waste  is  simply 
an  evidence  of  the  accumulation  of  poisonous  substances  with- 
in the  body,  through  the  lessened  activity  of  liver  and  kidneys 
and  the  impairment  of  the  blood." 

Dr.  Ezra  M.  Hunt  says  in  Alcohol  as  Food  and  as 
Medicine,  page  37  : — 


ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE.  11$ 

"  It  sounds  conservative  of  health  to  say  of  a  substance  that 
it  delays  the  breaking  down  of  tissue,  but  the  physiologist  does 
not  allow  a  substance  which  occasions  such  delay,  to  possess, 
because  of  that,  either  dietetic  or  remedial  value.  To  increase 
weight  by  prolonged  constipation  is  not  a  physiological  process." 

Dalton  says  : — 

"  The  importance  of  tissue  change  to  the  maintenance  of  life 
is  readily  shown  by  the  injurious  effects  which  follow  upon  its 
disturbance.  If  the  discharge  of  the  excrementiticus  substances 
be  in  any  way  impeded  or  suspended,  these  substances  ac- 
cumulate either  in  the  blood  or  tissues,  or  both.  In  con- 
sequence of  this  retention  and  accumulation  they  become 
poisonous,  and  rapidly  produce  a  derangement  of  the  vital 
functions.  Their  influence  is  principally  exerted  upon  the 
nervous  system,  through  which  they  produce  most  frequent 
irritability,  disturbance  of  the  special  senses,  delirium,  insensi- 
bility, coma,  and  finally,  death." 

The  power  to  retard  the  passage  of  waste  matter 
from  the  system  is  one  of  the  gravest  objections  to 
the  use  of  alcohol  in  sickness,  as  the  germs  of  dis- 
ease are  thereby  caused  to  remain  longer  in  the 
body  than  they  would,  were  no  alcohol  or  drug  of 
similar  action,  used.  Thus  recovery  is  delayed,  if 
not  effectually  hindered. 

The  preponderance  of  scientific  evidence  is  all 
against  alcohol  as  possessing  food  qualities.  It 
contains  no  elements  capable  of  entering  into  the 
composition  of  any  part  of  the  body,  hence  cannot 
give  strength ;  it  is  not  a  fuel-food  as  it  does  not 
supply  heat  to  the  body,  but  decreases  temperature  ; 
and  its  classification  as  indirect  food  because  it  re- 


Il6  ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE. 

tards  the  passage  of  waste  matter  is  shown  to  be 
utterly  unscientific,  as  any  agent  which  interferes 
with  the  natural  processes  of  assimilation  and  dis- 
integration is  a  dangerous  agent,  a  poison  rather 
than  a  food. 

The  question  naturally  arises  : — 

If  these  drinks  are  not  liquid  food,  as  we  have 
been  taught  to  believe,  how  is  it,  since  they  are 
made  from  food,  as  barley,  corn,  grapes,  potatoes, 
etc? 

These  drinks  are  not  food,  although  made  from 
food,  because  in  the  process  of  manufacturing  them 
the  food  principle  is  destroyed.  The  grain  is 
malted  to  change  starch  into  sugar — loss  of  food 
principle  begins  here — then  the  malted  grain  is 
soaked  in  water  to  extract  the  saccharine  matter. 
When  the  sugar  is  all  in  the  water  the  grain  goes  to 
feed  cattle  or  hogs,  and  the  sweetened  water  is 
fermented.  The  fermentation  changes  the  sugar 
into  alcohol. 

Analyses  of  beer  by  eminent  chemists  show  an 
average  of  90  per  cent,  water,  4  per  cent,  alcohol, 
and  6  per  cent,  malt  extract.  The  malt  extract 
consists  of  gum,  sugar,  various  acids,  salts  and  hop 
extract.  Starch  and  sugar  are  all  of  these  capable  of 
digestion,  and  the  amount  of  them  would  be  equal 
to  39  ounces  to  the  barrel  of  beer.  Liebig,  the 
great  German  chemist,  said  : — 

"  If  a  man  drinks  daily  8  or  10  quarts  of  the  best  Bavarian 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  11/ 

beer,  in  a  year  he  will  have  taken  into  his  system  the  nutritive 
constituents  contained  in  a  5  pound  loaf  of  bread." 

Eight  quarts  a  day  for  a  year  would  be  2,920 
quarts,  or  a  little  more  than  23  barrels.  If  sold  to 
the  consumer  at  the  low  rate  of  five  cents  a  pint,  it 
would  cost  him  $292  ;  a  high  price  for  as  much  nour- 
ishment as  in  a  5  pound  loaf ! 

Analyses  of  wine  by  reliable  chemists  show  that 
the  consumer  must  pay  $500  for  the  equivalent  in 
nourishment  of  a  5  pound  loaf  of  bread,  wine  being 
higher  priced  than  beer.  Wines  average  80  per  cent, 
water,  about  15  per  cent,  alcohol,  and  5  per  cent, 
residue.  This  residue  is  composed  of  sugar,  tar- 
taric, acetic  and  carbonic  acids,  salts  of  potassium 
and  sodium,  tannic  acid,  and  traces  of  an  ethereal 
substance  which  gives  the  peculiar  or  distinguishing 
flavor.  The  only  one  of  these  ingredients  possess- 
ing food  value  is  sugar  ;  this  exists  chiefly  in  what 
are  called  sweet  wines.  Yet  how  many  thousands 
of  people  spend  money  they  can  ill  afford  for  wines 
and  beers  to  build  up  the  failing  strength  of  some 
loved  one  !  A  costly  delusion,  and  too  often  a 
fatal  one ! 

■'  Distilled  liquors,  if  unadulterated,  contain  literally  nothing 
but  water  and  alcohol,  except  traces  of  juniper  in  gin,  and  the 
flavor  of  the  fermented  material  from  which  they  have  been  dis- 
tilled."— Influence  of  Alcohol,  by  N.  S.  Davis,  M.  D. 

It  is  the  solemn  duty  of  those  to  whom  the  people 
look  for  instruction  in  matters  of  health  to  unde- 
ceive the  toiling  masses  as  to  the  food-value  of  alco- 


118  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

holic  liquids.  Some  of  the  medical  profession  are 
faithful  in  this  regard,  but  too  many  others  are 
themselves  deceived,  or  care  not  for  the  destruction 
of  the  people. 

IS  ALCOHOL  A  STIMULANT? 

A  lady  asked  her  family  physician  several  years 
ago  what  he  thought  of  the  views  of  those  medical 
writers  who  class  alcohol  as  a  narcotic,  and  not  a 
stimulant.  He  answered  with  some  heat,  "Any 
one  who  says  alcohol  is  not  a  stimulant  is  either  a 
fool  or  a  knave  !  "  He  could  not  have  been  aware 
that  some  of  the  most  distinguished  professors  in 
American  medical  colleges  teach  that  alcohol  is 
not,  properly  speaking,  a  stimulant,  but  a  narcotic. 

The  accepted  definition  of  a  stimulant  in  medical 
literature  is  some  agent  capable  of  exciting  or  in- 
creasing vital  activity  as  a  whole,  or  the  natural 
activity  of  some  one  structure  or  organ. 

Dr.  N.  S.  Davis  has  said  repeatedly  that  both 
clinical  and  experimental  observations  show  that 
alcohol  directly  diminishes  the  functional  activity 
|  of  all  nerve  structures,  pre-eminently  those  of  res- 
piration and  circulation,  thus  decreasing  the  internal 
distribution  of  oxygen,  which  is  nature's  own 
special  exciter  of  all  vital  action. 

•"Consequently  it  is  antagonistic  to  all  true  stimulants  or 
remedies  capable  of  increasing  vital  activity.  Instead,  therefore, 
of  meriting  the  name  of  stimulant,  alcohol  should  be  designated 
and  used  only  as  an  anaesthetic  and  sedative,  or  depressor  of 
vital  activity." 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  II9 

The  following  is  taken  from  an  editorial  article 
in  the  American  Medical  Temperance  Quarterly  for 
January,  1894: — 

"  Drs.  Sidney  Ringer  and  H.  Sainsbury  in  a  carefully  exe- 
cuted series  of  experiments  on  the  isolated  heart  of  the  frog, 
found  that  all  the  alcohol  when  mixed  with  the  blood  circulat- 
ing through  the  heart,  uniformly  diminished  the  action  of  that 
organ  in  direct  proportion  to  the  quantity  of  alcohol  used,  until 
complete  paralysis  was  induced.  In  closing  their  report  in  re- 
gard to  the  action  of  different  alcohols,  they  say  that  '  by  their 
direct  action  on  the  cardiac  tissue  these  drugs  are  clearly 
paralyzant,  and  that  this  appears  to  be  the  case  from  the  out- 
set, no  stage  of  increased  force  of  contraction  preceding.' 

"  Professor  Martin,  while  in  connection  with  the  Johns  Hop- 
kins University,  performed  an  equally  careful  series  of  experi- 
ments in  regard  to  the  action  of  ethylic,  or  ordinary  alcohol, 
directly  on  the  cardiac  structures  of  the  dog,  and  with  the  same 
results.  He  makes  the  following  explicit  statement  of  the 
results  obtained  by  him.  '  Blood  containing  one-fourth  per 
cent,  by  volume,  that  is  two  and  a  half  parts  per  1000  of  abso- 
lute alcohol,  almost  invariably  diminishes,  within  a  minute,  the 
work  done  by  the  heart ;  blood  containing  one-half  per  cent, 
always  diminishes  it,  and  may  even  bring  the  amount  pumped 
out  by  the  left  ventricle  to  so  small  a  quantity  that  it  is  not  suffi- 
cient to  supply  the  coronary  arteries.' 

"  In  1883,  R.  Dubois,  by  direct  experimenting  upon  animals, 
found  that  the  presence  of  alcohol  in  the  blood  much  intensified 
the  action  of  chloroform  and  thereby  rendered  a  much  less 
dose  fatal. 

"  Prof.  H.  C.  Wood  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  in  an 
address  upon  Anaesthesia  to  the  Tenth  International  Medical 
Congress,  of  Berlin,  in  1890,  said  : '  In  my  own  experiments  with 
alcohol,  an  eighty  per  cent,  fluid  was  used  largely  diluted  with 
water.    The  amount  injected  into  the  jugular  vein  varied  in  the 


120  ALCOHOL  AS  A    MEDICINE. 

different  experiments  from  5  to  20  c.  c. ;  and  in  no  case  have  I 
been  able  to  detect  any  increase  in  the  size  of  the  pulse  or  in  the 
arterial  pressure  produced  by  alcohol,  when  the  heart  was  failing 
during  advanced  chloroform  anaesthesia.  On  the  other  hand, 
on  several  occasions,  the  larger  amounts  of  alcohol  apparently 
greatly  increased  the  rapidity  of  the  fall  of  arterial  pressure, 
and  aided  materially  in  extinguishing  the  pulse.' 

"  Sir  Henry  Thompson  says  :  '  That  alcohol  is  an  anaesthetic 
and  paralyzant  is  a  fact  too  well  established  to  be  questioned 
or  contradicted.' 

''  Dr.  J.  J.  Ridge,  of  London,  has  published  elaborate  tables, 
showing  that  even  small  doses  of  alcohol,  averaging  one  table- 
spoonful  of  spirits — not  quite  half  a  wineglass  of  claret  or 
champagne,  and  not  quite  a  quarter  of  a  pint  of  ale — impair 
vision,  feeling,  and  sensibility  to  weight,  without  the  subject's 
being  conscious  of  any  alteration.  Dr.  Scougal,  of  New  York, 
has  repeated  and  confirmed  these  experiments,  and  also  demon- 
strated that  the  hearing  was  similarly  affected. 

"  Drs.  Nichol  and  Mossop,  of  Edinburgh,  conducted  a  series 
of  experiments  on  each  other,  examining  the  eye  by  means  of 
the  ophthalmoscope  while  the  system  was  under  the  influence  of 
Various  drugs.  They  found  that  the  nerves  controlling  the 
delicate  blood-vessels  of  the  retina  were  paralyzed  by  a  dose  of 
about  a  tablespoonful  of  brandy. 

"  Dr.  T.  D.  Crothers,  of  Hartford,  Conn.,  has  deduced  some 
valuable  facts  from  his  experiments  with  the  sphygmograph, 
upon  the  action  of  the  heart.  He  has  found  by  repeated  ex- 
periments that  while  alcohol  apparently  increases  the  force  and 
volume  of  the  heart's  action,  the  irregular  tracings  of  the  sphyg- 
mograph show  that  the  real  vital  force  is  diminished,  and 
hence  its  apparent  stimulating  power  is  deceptive." — Extract 
from  the  Annual  Address  before  the  Medical  Temperance 
Association  at  San  Francisco,  Cal.,  June  8,  1894,  by  Dr.  I.  N. 
Quimby,  of  Jersey  City,  N.  J. 


ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE.  121 

Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg,  of  Battle  Creek,  Mich.,  has 
made  extensive  experiments  as  to  the  effects  of 
alcohol.  In  summing  up  the  results  of  these  he 
says  : — 

"  It  would  seem  that  no  further  evidence  could  be  required 
that  alcohol  is  a  narcotic  and  an  anaesthetic,  rather  than  a 
stimulant,  and  that  its  use  as  a  supporting  and  tonic  remedy  is  a 
practice  without  foundation  in  either  scientific  theory  or  natural 
clinical  experience." 

Sir  B.  W.  Richardson  at  a  medical  breakfast  in 
London  in  1895,  stated  that  though  alcohol  produced 
an  increase  in  the  motion  of  the  heart  it  was  ulti- 
mately weaker  in  its  action,  so  he  resolved  to  give 
up  using  such  an  agent. 

Dr.  A.  B.  Palmer  of  the  University  of  Michigan 
prepared  a  "  Report  "  upon  alcohol  in  1885  for  the 
Michigan  State  Medical  Society  in  which  he  cited 
experiments  showing  that  the  opinion  that  alcohol 
stimulates  the  heart  by  an  increase  of  real  force,  is 
an  error.     It  creates  a  flutter,  but  decreases  power. 

"  Increased  frequency  of  pulsation  is  often  the  strongest  evi- 
dence of  diminished  power — as  the  fluttering  pulse  of  extreme 

weakness." 

He  classes  alcohol  with  chloroform. 

"  If  chloroform  is  a  narcotic,  alcohol  is  a  narcotic.  If  chloro- 
form is  an  anaesthetic,  alcohol  is  an  anaesthetic.  If  one  is 
essentially  a  depressing  agent,  so  is  the  other.  Their  strong 
resemblance  no  one  can  question.  The  chief  difference  is  that 
the  alcoholic  narcosis  is  longer  continued,  and  its  secondary 
effects  are  more  severe." 


122  ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE. 

In  closing  his  summary  of  the  changes  in  scientific 
"knowledge  of  this  drug  he  says : — 

"  We  said  it  was  a  direct  heart  exciter.  We  now  know  it  is 
a  direct  heart  depressor.  We  said,  and  nearly  all  the  text-books 
still  say,  it  is  a  direct  cardiac  stimulant.  We  know  from  most 
conclusive  experiments  it  is  a*direct  cardiac  paralyzant." 

The  following  is  taken  from  one  of  the  many  ex- 
cellent papers  upon  alcohol  written  by  that  Nestor 
among  physicians,  Dr.  N.  S.  Davis  : — 

"  Alcoholics  are  very  generally  prescribed  in  that  weakness  of 
the  heart  sometimes  met  with  in  low  forms  of  fever  and  in  the 
advanced  stage  of  other  acute  diseases.  It  is  claimed  that 
these  agents  are  capable  of  strengthening  and  sustaining  the 
action  of  the  heart  under  the  circumstances  just  named,  and 
also  under  the  first  depressing  influence  of  severe  shock. 

"  There  is  nothing  in  the  ascertained  physiological  action  of 
alcohol  on  the  human  system,  as  developed  by  a  wide  range  of 
experimental  investigation,  to  sustain  this  claim.  I  have  used 
the  sphygmograph  and  every  other  available  means  for  testing 
experimentally  the  effects  of  alcohol  upon  the  action  of  the 
heart  and  blood-vessels  generally,  but  have  failed  in  every  in- 
stance to  get  proof  of  any  increased  force  of  cardiac  action. 

"  The  first  and  very  transient  effect  is  generally  increased 
frequency  of  beat,  followed  immediately  by  dilatation  of  the 
peripheral  vessels  from  impaired  vasomotor  sensibility,  and 
the  same  unsteady  or  wavy  sphygmographic  tracing  as  is  given 
in  typhoid  fever,  and  which  is  usually  regarded  as  evidence  of 
cardiac  debility.  Turning  from  the  field  of  experimentation  to 
the  sick-room,  my  search  for  evidences  of  the  power  of  alcohol 
to  sustain  the  force  of  the  heart,  or  in  any  way  to  strengthen 
the  patient  has  been  equally  unsuccessful.  I  was  educated 
and  entered  upon  the  practice  of  medicine  at  a  time  when 
alcoholic  drinks  weje  universally  regarded  as  stimulating  and 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  1 23 

heat-producing,  and  commenced  their  use  without  prejudice  or 
preconceived  notions.  But  the  first  ten  years  of  direct  clinical 
or  practical  observation  satisfied  me  fully  of  the  incorrectness 
of  those  views,  and  very  nearly  banished  the  use  of  these 
agents  from  my  list  of  remedies.  While  it  is  true  that  during 
the  last  thirty  years  I  have  not  prescribed  for  internal  use  the 
-aggregate  amount  of  one  quart  of  any  kind  of  fermented  or 
distilled  drinks,  either  in  private  or  hospital  practice,  yet  I  have 
continued  to  have  abundant  opportunity  for  observing  the 
effects  of  these  agents  as  given  by  others  with  whom  I  have 
been  in  council ;  and  simple  truth  compels  me  to  say  that  I 
have  never  yet  seen  a  case  in  which  the  use  of  alcoholic  drinks 
either  increased  the  force  of  the  heart's  action  or  strengthened 
the  patient  beyond  the  first  thirty  minutes  after  it  was  swal- 
lowed.    ***** 

"  Nothing  is  easier  than  self-deception  in  this  matter.  A 
patient  is  suddenly  taken  with  syncope,  or  nervous  weakness, 
from  which  abundant  experience  has  shown  that  a  speedy 
recovery  would  take  place  by  simple  rest  and  fresh  air.  But  in 
the  alarm  of  patient  and  friends  something  must  be  done.  A 
little  wine  or  brandy  is  given,  and,  as  it  is  not  sufficient  to 
positively  prevent,  the  patient  in  due  time  revives  just  as  would 
have  been  the  case  if  neither  wine  nor  brandy  had  been  used." 

In  the  Medical  Pioneer  of  November,  1895,  Prof. 
E.  MacDowel  Cosgrave,  Professor  of  Biology, 
Royal  College  of  Surgeons  in  Ireland,  says : — 

"  The  result  of  all  recent  investigation  is  to  show  that  the 
use  of  alcohol  when  a  stimulant  effect  is  desired,  is  an  error ; 
and  that,  from  first  to  last  alcohol  acts  as  a  narcotic." 

Dr.  Edmunds,  of  London,  said  in  an  address 
given  in  Manchester: — 

"  By  giving  alcohol  as  a  stimulant  in  exhausting  diseases,  I 
believe  we  always  do  as  we  should  in  giving  a  dose  of  opium 


124  ALCOHOL  AS  A    MEDICINE. 

and  brandy  and  water  to  comfort  a  half  suffocated  patient ; 
i.  e.,  increase  his  danger.  If  that  be  so,  we  reduce  alcohol  not 
only  from  the  position  of  food  medicine,  but  we  reduce  it  from 
the  position  of  a  goad  ;  and  we  say  that  the  supposititious  stimu- 
lating or  goading  influence  of  alcohol  is  a  mere  delusion ;  that 
in  fact  alcohol  always  lessens  the  power  of  the  patients,  and 
always  damages  their  chance  of  recovery,  when  it  is  a  question 
of  their  getting  through  exhausting  diseases." 

Many  more  such  quotations  might  be  adduced. 
Enough  are  given  to  show  that  the  popular  use  of 
alcohol,  when  a  stimulant  is  required,  is  considered 
a  grave  error  by  those  who  have  most  thoroughly 
studied.the  effects  of  this  drug. 

ALCOHOL  AS  A  TONIC. 

Dr.  J.  J.  Ridge,  of  London,  says : — 

"  The  action  of  alcohol  in  relaxing  unstriped  muscular  fibre, 
which  entitles  it  to  be  called  an  anti-spasmodic,  robs  it  of  all 
claim  to  give  tone.  The  sense  of  exhilaration  which  follows 
small  doses  of  alcohol  has  been  mistaken  for  real  strength  and 
increase  of  vitality.  It  is  well  known  that  relaxation  of  the 
blood-vessels  throughout  the  body  is  one  of  the  first  effects  of 
alcohol.  The  arteries  of  the  retina  have  been  observed  to 
dilate  after  very  small  doses  of  alcohol.  The  diminution  of 
tone  is  well  seen  in  the  tracings  of  the  pulse  under  the  influ- 
ence of  alcohol.  If  one  needs  a  tonic,  therefore,  alcohol  is  one 
of  the  things  to  be  shunned  altogether. 

"  But  alcoholic  beverages  contain  other  things  beside  alcohol. 
Beer  contains  infusion  of  hops,  or  other  bitter  stomachics. 
Some  wines  contain  tannin.  These  ingredients,  by  creating  or 
stimulating  the  appetite,  increase  the  strength  and  vital  power 
in  certain  cases.     But  we  have  a  large  number  of  drugs  which 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  125 

will  do  the  same  without  the  disadvantages  arising  from  the 
presence  of  alcohol,  and,  if  the  flavor  be  objected  to,  many  of 
them,  can  be  taken  in  the  form  of  coated  pills. 

"  The  external  use  of  cold,  either  by  a  dripping  sheet,  cold 
sponging,  or  a  shower-bath,  according  to  the  power  of  reaction, 
is  a  valuable  means  of  giving  real  tone. 

"  Wine  is  frequently  prescribed  for  those  young  persons  who 
are  growing  rapidly,  and  whose  strength  does  not  seem  to  keep 
pace  with  their  growth.  It  is  important  to  know  that  alcohol  is 
not  desirable  in  such  circumstances.  There  is  often  found  in 
such  cases  a  defective  appetite,  perhaps  even  sub-acute  gastric 
catarrh,  which  may  be  due  to  imperfect  mastication  through  bad 
teeth,  or  aggravated  by  it.  There  are  other  causes,  such  as  late 
hours,  bad  habits,  improper  food  or  irregular  meals.  In  such 
cases  those  means  must  be  resorted  to  which  are  so  effectual  in 
improving  the  condition  and  strengthening  the  heart  of  athletes. 
Regular  and  regulated  meals,  exercise  in  the  fresh  air,  a  good 
amount  of  rest  and  sleep — these  will  do  more  than  anything 
else  to  invigorate  the  bodily  health." 

Dr.  N.  S.  Davis  says  : — 

"  Although  I  was  taught,  like  all  others,  to  use  alcohol  as  a 
tonic  when  patients  were  sick,  to  hasten  their  recovery  and  pro- 
mote their  strength,  yet  it  did  not  take  me  very  long  to  find  out 
that  here  and  there  was  one  already  a  teetotaler  who  would  not 
take  wine  long,  nor  any  kind  of  alcoholic  drink  unless  prescribed, 
just  as  castor-oil,  dose  by  dose,  but  who,  when  he  got  beyond 
the  necessity  of  having  it  as  a  medicine,  took  no  more.  What 
was  the  comparison  ?  My  patients  who  refused,  or  did  not  take 
al-cohol,  got  strong  quicker  and  had  less  tendency  to  relapse 
than  those  who  continued  its  use.  Here  was  the  first  step  in 
progress,  and  consequently  I  came  soon  to  cease  the  recom- 
mending it  merely  to  hasten  recovery  of  strength.  As  a  tonic, 
I  found  it  of  no  value." 


126  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

Dr,  James  Miller,  of  Edinburgh,  says  in  Alcohol* 
Its  Place  and  Power,  written  many  years  ago  : — 

"  It  may  be  well  here  to  correct  an  important  error,  yet  very 
current,  in  regard  to  the  medicinal  use  of  alcohol.  People 
regard  it  as  a  simple  and  common  tonic ;  and  are  ready  to 
accept  its  supposed  help  as  such  in  every  form  of  weakness  and 
general  disorder  of  health.     But  it  is  ordinarily,  no  true  tonic." 

Dr.  Ernest  Hart,  editor  of  the  British  Medical 
Journal,  stated  some  years  ago  at  a  meeting  of  the 
British  Medical  Temperance  Association  that  "  the 
medical  profession  were  nearly  all  agreed  that  alco- 
hol is  neither  a  food  nor  a  tonic." 

Many  drunkards  have  been  made,  especially 
among  women,  by  the  delusion  that  alcohol  has 
tonic  effect.  As  a  sample  of  these  sad  cases  the 
following  is  given,  taken  from  a  recent  number  of 
The  National  Advocate  : — 

"  There  is  in  the  jail  at  Elizabeth,  N.  J.,  a  woman  who  was 
arrested  while  participating  in  wild  drunken  orgies  with  a  gang 
of  tramps  in  the  woods  near  the  town.  She  appears  nothing 
but  a  besotted  hag,  but  was  only  a  short  time  ago  a  dutiful  wife 
of  a  respectable  man,  and  the  mother  of  three  beautiful  children. 
Her  father,  who  is  said  to  be  living  in  a  village  in  New  York 
State,  is  a  highly  respected  minister  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church.  Her  children  are  in  an  asylum,  and  her  husband  is  a 
wanderer  in  the  West.  The  cause  of  her  ruin  was  beer,  pre- 
scribed for  her  by  the  family  physician  as  a  tonic.  At  first  she 
refused  to  take  it,  having  always  been  a  teetotaler,  but  per- 
suaded to  obey  the  physician,  she  soon  acquired  a  taste  for  the 
drink  that  speedily  developed  into  the  overmastering  appetite, 
which  has  brought  her  and  hers  to  this  sad  condition." 


ALCOHOL   AS   A   MEDICINE.  12/ 

ALCOHOL  AS  A  SEDATIVE. 

Dr.  J.  J.  Ridge  says  in  the  Medical Pioneer,  April, 
1893:— 

11  Alcohol,  chiefly  in  the  form  of  spirits,  is  often  given  to  pro- 
cure sleep  and  to  relieve  pain,  such  as  that  of  neuralgia, 
dyspepsia,  colic  and  diarrhoea.  It  is  as  a  sedative  that  alcohol 
is  so  insidious  and  seductive  in  cases  of  chronic  disease,  as,  if 
frequently  resorted  to,  the  drink  craving  is  almost  certainly 
developed.  Hence  the  importance  in  many  cases  of  rather 
bearing  the  ills  we  have  than  of  flying  to  others  that  we  know 
not  of.  It  is  clear  that  other  narcotics,  such  as  opium,  morphia, 
chorodyne,  chloral,  are  open  to  the  same  objection,  and  the 
victims  of  these  drugs  are  terribly  numerous.  *****  jn 
many  instances  some  form  of  dyspepsia  is  the  cause  of  the 
sleeplessness,  palpitation  or  other  uneasy  feeling  for  which  a 
sedative  is  desired,  and  when  this  is  cured  the  symptoms 
vanish." 

A  prominent  minister  in  a  large  American  city 
was  afflicted  with  insomnia  a  few  years  ago,  and, 
after  trying  various  remedies,  was  advised  by  a 
physician  to  try  whisky  "  night-caps."  He  became 
a  hopeless  drunkard.  A  young  medical  student  in 
New  York  appealed  to  one  of  his  professors  for  aid 
in  overcoming  aggravated  insomnia.  The  professor 
advised  whisky  and  morphine  !  The  advice  led  to 
the  ruin  of  the  young  man. 

ALCOHOL  AS  AN  ANTIPYRETIC. 

"  By  the  power  of  alcohol  to  retard  the  evolution  of  heat  in 
retarding  molecular  changes  in  the  tissues,  the  liquids  contain- 
ing it  may  be  used  as  antipyretics  when  the  temperature  is  too 
high,  and  to  retard  the  processes  of  waste  when  these  are  too 
rapid.     But  the  antipyretic  influence  of  alcohol  is  so  feeble  in 


128  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

comparison  with  the  proper  application  of  water  to  the  surface, 
or  with  the  internal  administration  of  sulphate  of  quinia,  sali- 
cylic acid,  digitalis,  etc.  that  no  one  thinks  of  using  it  for  anti- 
pyretic purposes." — Dr.  N.  S.  Davis  in  Principles  and  Prac- 
tice of  Medicine. 

PROFESSOR  ATWATER'S  CONCLUSIONS  UPON  ALCOHOL 
AS  A  FUEL-FOOD. 

Prof.  Atwaterof  Middletown,  Conn.,  has  recently- 
announced  that  he  has  proved  that  as  much  as  2\ 
ounces  of  pure  alcohol  a  day  can  be  oxidized  in  the 
body,  giving  off  as  much  heat  as  the  same  quantity 
of  alcohol  burned  in  a  lamp.  The  subject  of  the 
experiment  was  a  man  shut  up  in  a  box  prepared 
for  the  purpose.  Both  Drs.  Davis  and  Richardson 
used  the  thermometer  test,  and  by  it  a  decline  in 
temperature  almost  invariably  followed  within  half 
an  hour  after  the  ingestion  of  alcohol.  If  Dr. 
Atwater  used  the  thermometer  test  it  is  strange 
that  no  mention  is  made  of  it.  It  agrees  perfectly 
with  the  experience  of  Arctic  travelers  in  showing 
that  alcohol  robs  the  body  of  heat. 

But  even  if  it  could  be  proved  that  alcohol  can 
be  oxidized  in  the  body,  that  does  not  say  that  it  is 
a  suitable  substance  to  ever  introduce  into  the  body. 
For  instance,  in  cases  of  ptomaine  poisoning  the 
substances  are  undergoing  oxidation,  but  no  one 
regards  the  feverish  condition  produced  as  desirable. 
Until  absolute  physiological  experiment  demon- 
strates that  alcohol  in  the  changes  it  undergoes  is 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  1 29 

doing  good  and  not  harm,  the  conclusion  cannot  be 
accepted  that  it  is  in  any  correct  sense  a  fuel-food. 
Dr.  Cyrus  Edson,  the  eminent  New  York  physi- 
cian, is  reported  in  the  New  Voice  as  saying  : — 

"  Medical  science  has  repeatedly  shown  that  the  human  sys- 
tem cannot  absorb  more  than  one  ounce  of  alcohol  in  24  hours. 
Prof.  Atwater  has  simply  shown  that  the  system  is  not  affected 
by  two  ounces  in  a  day.  That  is,  he  has  shown  that  there  are 
no  harmful  results  ;  that  at  the  end  of  that  period  there  are  no 
traces  of  the  alcohol  found  in  the  secretions  of  the  pores,  lungs 
or  bowels. 

"  These  I  judge  to  be  simply  negative  results.  The  subject 
of  his  experiment  was  not  harmed  by  taking  two  ounces  of 
alcohol  during  one  or  two  or  possibly  six  days,  but  who  shall 
say  that  the  same  man  would  not  be  harmed  in  six  weeks,  two 
months  or  a  year  ?  Grant  the  consumption  of  this  stated 
amount  of  liquor  does  not  injure  physically  a  certain  man,  there 
is  nothing  to  show  that  the  subject,  to  say  nothing  of  others, 
will  not  increase  the  amount  until  it  has  an  intoxicating  effect. 

"  My  opinion  is  that  alcohol  will  do  harm  in  time  no  matter 
how  it  is  taken.  You  will  find,  out  of  the  number  of  persons 
who  start  in  to  follow  the  theory  that  two  ounces  of  alcohol,  of 
its  equivalent  in  liquor,  taken  daily,  furnishes  food  for  the  body, 
many  will  get  the  liquor  appetite,  and  become  addicted  to  its 
use." 

The  Bulletin  of  the  A.  M.  T.  A.  for  July,  1899, 
contained  an  article  upon  Prof.  Atwater  by  Dr.  J. 
H.  Kellogg,  from  which  the  following  is  taken  : — 

"  Starch,  sugar  and  fats  become  foods  or  fuels  only  through 
their  assimilation.  Abundant  physiological  evidence  attests 
that  no  substance  can  act  as  a  food,  or  as  a  true  source  of  energy, 
unless  it  has  first  entered  into  the  composition  of  the  body.     It 


130  ALCOHOL  AS  A    MEDICINE. 

must  be  assimilated.  The  forces  manifested  by  the  body,  the 
muscular  forces,  or  nervous  energy,  are  the  result  of  the  break- 
ing down  of  organized  structure  into  simpler  forms.  For 
example,  in  the  case  of  nervous  energy,  material  from  which 
nerve  energy  is  derived  is  stored  up  in  the  nerve  cell,  and  can 
be  seen  with  the  microscope  in  the  form  of  minute  granules, 
which  disappear  as  the  cell  energy  is  expended,  leaving  the  cell 
blank  and  shriveled  when  in  a  state  of  extreme  fatigue  from 
overwork.  The  same  is  essentially  true  of  the  muscle  cell. 
The  source  of  muscular  energy  is  glycogen,  an  organized  sub- 
stance which  becomes  a  part  of  the  muscle  tissue  in  a  well- 
nourished  muscle  in  a  state  of  rest. 

"  Experiments  have  clearly  shown  that  fat,  sugar  and  starch 
must  all  alike  be  converted  into  the  form  of  glycogen  and  enter 
into  the  muscle  structure  before  they  can  become  a  source  of 
energy. 

"  Professor  Atwater  tells  us  that  alcohol  can  not  form  tissue, 
hence  the  query  is  pertinent,  How  can  it  be  a  source  of  vital 
energy  ?  The  body  does  not  burn  food  as  a  stove  does  fuel. 
Food  can  be  called  fuel  only  in  a  highly  figurative  sense.  The 
oxidation  of  food  in  the  body  does  not  take  place  directly. 
Food  is  assimilated,  becoming  a  part  of  the  tissue.  Oxygen  is 
also  assimilated,  entering  into  the  composition  of  the  tissue 
along  with  the  food  elements  under  the  action  of  special 
organic  ferments  brought  into  play  by  nervous  impulses  re- 
ceived from  the  central  ganglia. 

"The  molecules  of  these  residual  tissues  which  form  the/ 
storehouse  of  energy  in  the  body  are  rearranged  in  simpler 
forms,  thereby  giving  up  a  portion  of  the  energy  which  holds 
them  together  in  the  state  in  which  they  exist  in  the  tissues, 
and  this  energy  thus  set  free  appears  as  muscle  force,  mental 
activity,  glandular  work  and  various  other  forms  of  functional 
activity." 


CHAPTER  VII. 

ALCOHOL   IN   PHARMACY. 

In  the  Journal  of  the  American  Medical  Associa- 
tion for  November  13,  1897,  Dr.  T.  D.  Crothers, 
editor  of  the  Journal  of  Inebriety,  says  in  a  paper 
upon  "  Concealed  Alcohol  in  Drugs  "  : — 

"  A  very  important  question  has  been  repeatedly  raised,  and 
answered  differently  by  persons  who  claim  to  have  some 
expert  knowledge.  The  question  is,  can  strong  tinctures  of 
common  drugs  be  given  in  all  cases  with  safety ;  tinctures  of 
the  various  bitters  which  contain  from  10  to  40  per  cent,  of 
alcohol,  and  are  used  very  freely  by  neurotic  and  debilitated 
persons  ?  It  is  asserted  with  the  most  positive  convictions  that 
such  tinctures  are  more  sought  for  the  narcotic  effect  of  the 
alcohol  than  for  the  drugs  themselves. 

"  In  my  experience  a  large  number  of  inebriates  who  are 
restored,  relapse  from  the  use  of  these  tinctures  given  for  their 
medicinal  effects.     ***** 

"  The  question  is  asked,  how  much  alcohol  can  be  used  as  a 
solvent  in  drugs  without  adding  a  new  force  more  potent  than 
that  which  is  brought  out  by  the  alcohol  ?  Opinions  of  experts 
differ.  One  writer  thinks  10  per  cent,  of  alcohol  in  any  drug 
will,  if  given  any  length  of  time,  develop  the  physiologic  effect 
of  alcohol  in  addition  to  that  of  the  drug.  An  English  writer 
says  that  in  some  cases  a  5  per  cent,  tincture  is  dangerous  from 
the  alcohol  which  it  contains. 

"  There  is  some  doubt  expressed  by  many  authorities  as  to 

131 


132  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

the  potency  of  a  drug  which  is  covered  up  in  a  strong  tincture. 
It  is  clear  that  the  value  of  a  drug  is  not  enhanced,  and  it  is 
certain  that  a  new  force-producing,  or  exploding  agency,  has 
been  added  to  the  body. 

''  In  experience,  any  drug  which  contains  alcohol  can  not  be 
given  to  persons  who  have  previously  used  it  without  rousing  up 
the  old  desire  for  drink,  or  at  least  producing  a  degree  of  irrita- 
tion and  excitement  that  clearly  comes  from  this  source.  It  is 
also  the  experience  of  persons  who  are  very  susceptible  to  alco- 
hol, that  any  strong  tincture  is  followed  by  headache  and  other 
symptoms  that  refer  to  disturbed  nerve  centres. 

"  In  many  studies  I  have  been  surprised  at  the  increased  ac- 
tion of  drugs  when  given  in  other  forms  than  the  tincture.  Gum 
and  powdered  opium,  have  far  more  pronounced  narcotic  action 
than  the  tincture.  Yet  the  tincture  is  followed  by  a  more  rapid 
narcotism,  but  of  shorter  duration,  and  attended  with  more 
nerve  disturbance  at  the  onset. 

"  I  am  convinced  that  a  more  exact  knowledge  of  the  physio- 
logic action  of  alcohol  on  the  organism  will  show  that  its  use 
in  drugs  as  tinctures  is  dangerous  and  will  be  abandoned. 

"  There  are  many  reasons  for  believing  that  its  use  in  pro- 
prietary drugs  will  be  punished  in  the  future  under  what  is 
called  the  poison  act." 

Dr.  J.  J.  Ridge  published  in  May,  1893,  in  the 
Medical  Pioneer,  the  following  statement  of  the 
pharmacy  of  the  London  Temperance  Hospital : — 

"  When  the  Temperance  Hospital  was  first  opened,  it  became 
a  question  of  practical  importance,  what  should  be  done  with 
regard  to  the  alcohol  so  largely  employed  as  a  vehicle  and  drug 
excipient.  Not  that  the  principle  of  the  treatment  of  disease 
without  the  ordinary  administration  of  alcoholic  beverages  pre- 
cludes the  employment  of  alcoholic  tinctures,  but  it  was  felt  that 
in  such  a  test  case  as  this  it  was  important  to  obviate  the  objec- 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 


133 


tion  that  while  withholding  alcohol  as  a  beverage,  it  was  given 
in  the  medicine.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  surprising,  when  one 
looks  into  it,  how  much  alcohol  is  often  given  merely  as  a  vehi- 
cle for  other  drugs,  and  without  the  special  action  of  alcohol 
being  required  or  desired.  In  prescriptions  which  are  to  be 
seen  in  many  text-books,  it  is  not  uncommon  to  find  from  one 
to  two  or  three,  or  even  four  drachms  of  rectified  spirit  in  the 
form  of  tinctures  or  spirits.  This  is  very  undesirable.  If  alco- 
hol is  needed  it  should  be  given  in  proper  measured  dose. 
But  if  it  is  not  indicated,  then  it  is  not  well  to  administer  it  in 
this  indirect  manner. 

"  Experiments  were  therefore  made,  partly  at  the  hospital 
and  specially  by  Messrs.  Southall  Bros.  &  Barclay,  of  Birming- 
ham, with  the  result  that  new  non-alcoholic  tinctures  were 
made  replacing  the  following  alcoholic  tinctures  and  wines  : — 


Tinct.  Aloes. 
Arnicas. 
Aurantii. 
Belladonnas. 
Buchu. 
Calumbas. 
Camph.  Co. 
Capsici. 
Cascarillas. 
Catechu. 
Chiratas. 
Cinchonas  Co. 

Flav. 
Cinnamomas. 
Colchici  Sem. 
Conii. 
Digitalis. 
Ferri  Acet. 
Ferri  Perchlor. 
Gentiani  Co. 


Tinct.  Hyosciami. 

"  Kino. 

"  Kramerias. 

<;  Limonis. 

"  Lobelias. 

"  Nucis  Vomicae. 

"  Opii. 

"  Quassias. 

"  Rhei. 

"  Scillas. 

"  Serpentarias. 

14  Stramonii. 

"  Valeriana?. 

"  "     Ammon. 

Vin.  Aloes. 

"  Colchici  Rad. 

"         "        Sim. 

"  Ipecac. 

"  Opii. 

"  Rhei. 


134  ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE. 

"  These  were  made  by  extracting  the  principles  of  the  drugs 
in  the  usual  way  except  that  instead  of  alcohol  a  mixture  of 
glycerine  and  water  was  used  in  the  proportion  of  one-fourth  to 
one-third  part  of  glycerine,  and  about  five  per  cent,  of  acetic 
acid.  These  made  very  elegant  preparations,  and  in  the  major- 
ity of  cases  appeared  to  have  just  the  same,  and  just  as  great 
physiological  action.  Subsequently  the  ordinary  tinctures  were 
distilled,  and  the  extracts  thus  obtained  dissolved  in  the  above 
menstruum,  as  far  as  was  possible,  in  most  cases  the  residuum 
being  found  to  be  inert. 

"  Gum  resins  and  essential  oils  were  found  to  be  insoluble  in 
this  menstruum,  and  hence  such  drugs  have  been  given  in  the 
form  of  pill,  powder  or  mixture.  Such  tinctures  are  those  of 
assafcetida,  benzoin,  cannabis  indica,  cantharides,  castor,  cubebs, 
lavender,  myrrh,  pyrethrum,  sumbul,  tolu  and  ginger.  Out  of 
62  tinctures  it  was  found  that  46  made  good  preparations,  and 
16  did  not. 

"  These  were  employed  for  several  years.  But  for  some  time 
past,  somewhat  more  reliable  preparations  have  been  made  for 
us  which  contain  all  the  constituents  of  the  alcoholic  tinctures 
without  the  alcohol.  They  are  for  the  most  part  made  by  tak- 
ing standardized  tinctures,  mixing  with  them  sugar  of  milk,  and 
distilling  off  the  alcohol.  The  alcoholic  extract  remains  behind 
in  a  finely  divided  condition  mingled  with  sugar  of  milk.  This 
is  broken  up,  pulverized  and  compressed  into  tabloids  of  a 
definite  dose,  which  can  be  taken  either  in  that  form  or  rubbed 
up  and  dissolved  or  suspended  in  gum  water. 

"  The  following  have  been  made  up  in  this  form :  aconite, 
belladonna,  camph.  co.,  cannabis  indica,  capsicum,  cinchon.  co., 
and  cinchon.  simpl.,  digitalis,  gelseminum,  hyosciamus,  nux 
vomica,  opium,  strophantus,  ginger  and  Warburg.  Other  tinc- 
tures will  be  gradually  added  to  this  list. 

"As  external  liniments  thosccommonly  used  are  the  linimen- 
tum  terebinthinse  and  the  linimentum  terebinthinas   aceticum, 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  135 

which  do  not  contain  alcohol.  A  strong  solution  of  iodine  is 
made  with  iodide  of  potassium. 

"  The  spiritus  ammonias  aromaticus  is  made  without  the  spirit, 
the  aromatic  oils  being  emulsionized  by  means  of  rubbing  up 
with  fine  sand,  but  most  of  these  subsequently  rise  to  the  sur- 
face. The  spiritus  etheris  nitrosi  is  impossible  without  alcohol, 
but  nitrite  of  amyl,  and  nitrites  of  potash  or  soda  can  be  substi- 
tuted. The  spiritus  chloroformi  is  replaced  by  aqua  chloroformi, 
or  as  a  sweetening  agent  by  solution  of  saccharin.  Thus  a  favor- 
ite expectorant  mixture  contains  carbonate  of  ammonia  five 
grains,  acetum  ipecac,  ten  minims,  and  solution  of  saccharin  in 
each  dose. 

"  As  a  special  stimulant  a  subcutaneous  injection  of  a  drachm 
of  pure  ether  has  been  given  in  a  few  cases  :  in  others  digitalis, 
or  caffeine  or  ammonia  in  some  form,  such  as  the  carbonate 
dissolved  in  a  cup  of  hot  coffee  ;  or  hot  solution  of  Liebig's 
extract,  or  rectal  injections  of  hot  water," 

It  may  be  objected  by  some  that  glycerine  be- 
longs to  the  family  of  alcohols,  hence  hospitals 
using  glycerine  tinctures  are  not,  strictly  speaking, 
non-alcoholic.  To  this  the  answer  is,  that  while 
glycerine  certainly  is  classed  in  the  family  of  alco- 
hols, it  is  of*  a  very  different  nature  from  ethyl 
alcohol,  which  is  used  for  beverage  purposes. 
Ethyl  alcohol,  the  alcohol  in  all  intoxicating  bever- 
ages in  common  use,  and  the  alcohol  generally  used 
in  medicine,  creates  a  fatal  craving  for  itself,  and  is 
injurious  to  the  body.  Glycerine  does  not  create 
any  craving  for  itself,  and  has  not  been  demonstrated 
to  have  injurious  properties,  and  is  not  used  for 
beverage  purposes. 

At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  New  York  State 


I36  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

Medical  Society,  held  in  New  York  City,  in  October, 
1898,  a  discussion  was  held  upon  the  use  of  alcohol 
as  medicine.  Dr.  E.  R.  Squibb,  a  leading  pharma- 
cist of  Brooklyn,  stated  that  during  the  last  two  or 
three  years  much  had  been  accomplished  in  retiring 
alcohol  as  a  menstruum  for'  exhausting  drugs.  Of 
the  other  menstrua  experimented  with  up  to  the 
present  time,  that  which  had  given  the  best  results 
was  acetic  acid,  in  various  strengths.  It  had  been 
discovered  that  a  ten  per  cent,  solution  of  acetic 
acid  was  almost  universal  in  its  exhausting  powers. 
There  were  now  in  use  in  veterinary  practice,  and 
in  some  hospitals,  extracts  made  with  acetic  acid. 
They  were  made  according  to  the  requirements  of 
the  pharmacopoeia,  except  that  acetic  acid  was 
substituted  for  alcohol.  Acetic  acid,  when  used 
with  alkaloids  gives  the  physician  some  advantages 
in  prescribing,  owing  to  there  being  fewer  incom- 
patibles.  In  small  doses,  the  percentage  of  acetic 
acid  in  the  extract  is  so  small  as  to  be  hardly 
appreciable,  and  when  larger  doses  are  required, 
the  acetic  acid  can  be  neutralized  by  the  addition 
of  potash  or  soda. 

Dr.  Noble  said,  in  article  to  London  Times'bziorQ 
referred  to  : — 

"Modern  science  has  shown  that  those  drugs  which  are 
soluble  in  alcohol  only,  are,  in  all  probability,  more  hurtful  than 
useful." 

The  following  from  Dr.  Jas.  R.  Nichols,  editor 
Boston  Journal  of  Chemistry,  is   too  good    to  be 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  1 37 

omitted,  although  it  should  be  familiar  to  temper- 
ance students: — 

"  The  facetious  Dr.  Holmes  has  said,  that  if  the  contents  of 
our  drug-stores  were  taken  out  upon  the  ocean  and  thrown 
overboard,  it  would  be  better  for  the  human  race,  but  worse  for 
the  fishes.  This  statement  may  be  a  little  sweeping  ;  but  it  is 
true  that  all  the  showy  bottles  in  drug-stores  which  contain 
alcoholic  decoctions  and  tinctures  might  be  submerged  in 
the  ocean,  and  invalids  would  suffer  no  detriment.  Since  the 
active  alkaloidal  and  resinoidal  principles  of  roots,  barks  and 
gums  have  been  isolated  and  put  in  better  and  more  convenient 
forms,  there  is  no  longer  need  of  alcoholic  tinctures  and  elixirs. 
Laudanum,  which  is  a  tincture  of  opium,  might,  be  banished 
from  the  shelves  of  every  apothecary,  as  it  is  not  needed.  It  is 
now  known  that  the  valuable  narcotic  and  hypnotic  principles 
of  opium  are  contained  in  certain  crystalline  bodies,  which  can 
be  isolated,  and  used  in  minute  and  convenient  forms,  and  that 
they  can  be  held  in  aqueous  solutions.  Alcohol  is  no  longer 
needed  to  hold  the  active  principles  of  opium,  Peruvian  bark 
or  other  indispensable  drugs.  As  regards  the  vegetable  tonics 
so  called,  the  best  among  them  is  the  columbo  (Radix  columbo) 
and  this  readily  yields  its  bitter  principle  to  water,  as  does 
quassia,  gentian,  senna,  rhubarb  and  most  other  valuable  sub- 
stances. A  careful  survey  of  the  contents  of  a  well-appointed 
modern  pharmacy  leads  to  the  conclusion  that  there  is  no  one 
indispensable  medicinal  preparation  which  requires  alcohol  as  a 
free  constituent. 

"  The  catalogue  of  modern  remedies  is  almost  endless,  and 
many  of  them  hold  alcohol  in  some  form  ;  but  every  intelligent 
physician  knows  that  90  per  cent,  of  these  alleged  remedies 
have  little  or  no  intrinsic  value.  The  nostrums  of  t*»p  quack, 
the  bitters,  elixirs,  cordials,  extracts,  etc.  nearly  all  contain  al- 
cohol, and  this  is  the  ingredient  which  aids  their  sale.  The 
whole  unclean  list  might,  with  advantage  to  mankind,  be 
thrown  to  the  fishes. 


I38  ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE. 

"  The  chemist,  more  particularly  the  pharmaceutical  chemist, 
may  inquire  how  he  is  to  conduct  his  processes  without  alcohol. 
It  is  from  the  pharmaceutical  laboratory  we  derive  some  of 
the  most  important  substances  used  in  medicines  and  the  arts. 
Among  them  may  be  named  ether,  chloroform  and  chloral  hy- 
drate, three  of  the  most  indispensable  agents  known  to  science, 
and  the  employment  of  alcohol  is  essential  to  their  production,  i 
Alcohol  is  a  laboratory  product ;  it  is  a  chemical  agent  which 
belongs  to  the  laboratory ;  it  is  the  handmaid  of  the  chemist, 
and,  so  long  as  it  exists,  should  be  retained  within  the  walls  of 
the  laboratory.  In  the  manufacture  of  most  of  the  important 
products  in  which  alcohol  is  either  directly  or  indirectly  used, 
its  production  may  be  made  simultaneous  with  the  production 
of  the  agent  desired.  In  the  manufacture  of  ether  and  chloro-  , 
form,  the  apparatus  for  alcohol  may  be  made  a  part  of  the  de- 
vices from  which  the  ultimate  agents,  ether  and  chloroform, 
result.  Fermentation  and  distillation  may  be  conducted  at  one 
end,  and  the  anaesthetics  received  at  the  other.  It  is  true  that 
in  a  chemical  laboratory  alcohol  is  an  agent  very  convenient  in 
a  thousand  ways.  But,  if  it  were  banished  utterly,  what  would 
result?  There  are  other  methods  of  fabricating  the  useful 
products  named,  and  many  others,  without  the  use  of  alcohol, 
but  the  processes  would  be  rather  inconvenient  and  more  costly. 
The  banishment  of  alcohol  would  not  deprive  us  of  a  single  one 
of  the  indispensable  agents  which  modern  civilization  demands, 
and  neither  would  chemical  science  be  retarded  by  its  loss. 

"  It  must  be  remembered  that  modern  science  has  given  us 
glycerine,  naptha,  bisulphide  of  carbon,  pyroligneous  products, 
carbolic  acid  and  a  hundred  other  agents  which  are  capable  of 
taking  the  place  of  alcohol  in  a  very  large  number  of  appliances 
and  processes." 

The  sale  of  liquor  in  drug-stores  is  beginning  to 
be  deplored  by  the  more  respectable  pharmacists. 
At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Massachusetts  State 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  1 39 

Pharmacists'  Association  in  1895  the  president  said 
in  his  address  : — 

"  One  thing  that  every  pharmacist,  who  has  the  best  interests 
of  his  calling  at  heart,  must  bear  in  mind  is  that  the  liquor  part 
of  their  business  is  being,  and  must  be,  slowly  crowded  out. 
Public  sentiment  has  changed  greatly  in  the  last  few  years,  and 
instead  of  all  being  classed  alike,  the  line  has  been  sharply 
drawn,  and  the  stores  that  sell  the  least  amount  of  liquor  that 
they  possibly  can  are  gaining  the  confidence  and  esteem  of  the 
public,  and  consequently  their  business  is  growing  from  year  to 
year,  while  the  others  are  losing  ground  and  dropping  lower 
and  lower." 

The  Evening  Record  of  Boston  contained  the  fol- 
lowing in  its  issue  of  March  7,  1896 : — 

"  The  number  of  flagrant  offences  on  the  part  of  druggists  in 
certain  no-license  towns — offences  not  only  against  the  liquor 
laws,  but  also  against  the  laws  of  decency  and  humanity — 
brought  before  the  board  of  pharmacy,  would  appall  the  public 
if  they  were  known.  The  Looker-On  has  seen  the  record  of 
several  of  these  druggists  as  transcribed  from  the  police  courts 
and  they  are  very  black  records.  One  druggist  after  selling 
liquor  over  and  over  again  to  one  customer,  and  several  times 
getting  him  completely  intoxicated,  finally  deposited  him  one 
night  in  a  snowbank,  'in  a  state  of  frozen  stupor,  where  he 
would  have  frozen  to  death  had  not  the  wife  of  the  druggist's 
clerk  threatened  to  complain  to  the  police  unless  he  was  rescued. 

"  The  story  is  told  of  one  of  the  druggists  of  a  neighboring 
no-license  town.  A  man  came  in  and  asked  for  a  pint  of 
whisky.  He  was  asked  what  he  wanted  it  for.  His  reply  was 
that  he  wanted  it  to  soak  some  roots  in.  He  got  it,  and  as  he 
went  out  he  dryly  remarked,  '  I  should  have  told  you  that  it 
was  the  roots  of  me  tongue  that  I  want  to  soak. '  " 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

DISEASES,   AND   THEIR   TREATMENT  WITHOUT 
ALCOHOL. 

THE  question,  "  What  shall  I  take  instead  of 
wine,  beer  or  brandy  ? "  is  frequently  asked  by 
those  who  have  been  trained  to  think  some  form  of 
alcohol  really  necessary  to  the  cure  of  disease,  but, 
who,  from  principle  would  prefer  other  agents,  if 
they  knew  of  any  equal  in  effect.  This  chapter 
deals  somewhat  with  the  answer  to  that  question. 

Alcoholic  Craving  : — The  craving  for  alcohol 
may  be  present  for  a  time  after  a  person  has  com- 
menced to  abstain  from  all  beverages  containing  it. 
Or,  it  may  occur  periodically,  as  a  sort  of  irresistible 
impulse.  For  the  periodical  craving  Dr.  Higgin- 
botham,  of  England,  recommends  that  a  half  drachm 
of  ipecacuanha  be  taken  so  as  to  produce  full  vomit- 
ing. He  says  the  desire  for  intoxicating  drinks  will 
be  immediately  removed.  The  craving  is  caused  by 
vitiated  secretions  of  the  stomach  ;  the  vomiting 
removes  these.     Dr.  Higginbotham  says  : — 

"  If  a  patient  can  be  persuaded  to  follow  the  emetic  plan  for 
a  few  times  when  the  periodical  attacks  come  on,  he  will  be 
effectually  cured." 

Some  men  in  trying  to  abstain  have  found  the 

140 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  I4I 

use  of  fresh  fruit,  especially  apples,  very  helpful. 
Nourishing  and  digestible  food  should  be  taken 
somewhat  frequently.  A  cup  of  hot  milk  or  hot 
coffee  taken  at  the  right  moment  has  saved  some. 

Anaemia: — In  this  complaint  there  is  a  defi- 
ciency of  the  red  corpuscles  of  the  blood.  It  may  be 
the  result  of  some  fever  or  exhausting  illness;  it 
may  accompany  dyspepsia,  and  is  then  due  to  im- 
perfect digestion  and  assimilation  of  the  food. 
The  poverty  of  the  blood  produces  shortness  of 
breath,  and  often  palpitation  of  the  heart  also, 
especially  on  a  little  exertion.  There  is  generally 
more  or  less  weariness,  languor  and  debility,  some- 
times also  giddiness,  sickness,  fainting  and  neuralgia. 

"  In  the  treatment  of  anaemia,  port  wine  and  other  alcoholic 
liquors  are  worse  than  useless." — Dr.  J.  J.  Ridge,  London. 

"  The  common  prescription  of  wine  or  some  form  of  spirits 
for  states  of  general  exhaustion  and  anaemia,  is  a  serious  mistake. 
It  assumes  that  the  temporary  increase  in  the  action  of  the  heart 
is  renewed  vigor,  and  that  some  power  is  added  to  the  failing 
energies.  This  theory  rests  solely  on  the  statement  of  the 
patient  that  he  feels  better.  In  reality  the  exhaustion  is  intensi- 
fied, though  covered  up.'' — Medical  Pioneer. 
1  "  Deficiency  of  nutrition,  of  light  and  of  pure  air  may  be 
mentioned  as  common  causes  of  anaemia.  *****  It  is 
evident  that  the  first  step  in  the  treatment  of  this  disease  is  to 
remove  the  cause.  If  the  cause  is  dyspepsia,  this  must  receive 
attention ;  if  intestinal  parasites,  they  must  be  dislodged ;  if 
prolonged  nursing,  nursing  must  be  interdicted  ;  if  too  little 
food,  a  larger  quantity  of  nourishing,  wholesome  food  must  be 
employed.  Such  simple  and  easily  digested  foods  as  eggs, 
poached  or  boiled,  boiled    milk,  kumyzoon,  good  buttermilk, 


142  ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE. 

puree  of  peas,  beans  or  lentils,  boiled  rice,  well-cooked  gruels 
and  other  preparations  of  grains  are  suitable.  Beef  tea  and 
extracts  are  worthless.     *  *  *  *  * 

"  A  careful  course  of  physical  training  is  essential  to  securing 
perfect  recovery  in  cases  of  chronic  anaemia  due  to  indigestion, 
or  any  other  serious  disturbance  of  the  nutritive  processes." — 
Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg. 

Appetite,  Loss  of  :— "  There  is  often  disinclination  for 
food  because  */  is  not  required.  Many  cannot  eat  much  break- 
fast, because  they  have  had  a  hearty  supper.  Or  having  had 
both  a  hearty  breakfast  and  luncheon,  they  feel  but  little  desire 
for  a  dinner  of  four  or  five  courses.  Generally  the  stomach  is 
right  and  the  habits  wrong.  What  is  to  be  done  then,  for 
such  lack  of  appetite  ?  Simply  go  without  food  until  appetite 
comes. 

"  When  ale  or  beer  is  taken  regularly  with  meals  the  stomach 
learns  to  expect  them,  and  the  food  is  not  relished  without 
them.  The  appetizing  power  of  beer  and  bitter  ales  is  chiefly 
due  to  the  hop  or  other  bitter  ingredients  which  they  contain. 
When  it  seems  necessary  to  assist  the  appetite  temporarily,  a 
small  quantity  of  simple  infusion  of  hops  may  be  taken. 

"  Sometimes  appetite  fails  because  of  exhaustion  of  body 
and  mind.  This  may  be  nature's  warning  against  overwork, 
and  cannot  be  neglected  with  impunity.  Life  will  inevitably  be 
shortened  if  it  is  found  necessary  to  rely  upon  the  aid  of 
alcohol  in  any  form  in  order  to  do  a  day's  work. 

"  Bouillon,  or  beef  soup,  at  the  beginning  of  a  meal  are  in 
centives  to  appetite.  Change  of  scene,  and  life  in  the  open 
air  are  the  very  best  aids  to  appetite,  when  aids  are  really  re- 
quired." 

Apoplexy  : — "  There  is  a  popular  idea  that  whenever  a  per- 
son is  taken  ill  with  giddiness,  fainting  or  insensibility,  brandy 
should  be  at  once  procured  and  poured  down  his  throat. 
Nothing  can  be  more  dangerous  in  apoplexy.     This  disease  is 


ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE.  I43 

due  to  the  bursting  of  some  blood-vessel  in  the  head,  and  the 
poured-out  blood  presses  on  the  brain  and  leads  to  more  or  less 
insensibility.  If  fainting  occurs,  it  may  possibly  save  the 
patient's  life,  because  then  the  blood-vessels  contract,  and  the 
flow  of  blood  ceases  immediately ;  time  is  thus  given  for  the 
ruptured  blood-vessel  to  became  sealed  up  by  a  clot,  which  will 
prevent  further  loss  of  blood.  If  brandy  is  given,  there  is,  first, 
great  risk  of  choking  the  patient  :  if  that  danger  is  escaped 
and  the  brandy  is  swallowed  and  absorbed,  the  vessels  become 
relaxed  and  the  heart  recovers  its  force;  hence  the  ruptured 
vessel,  if  not  sufficiently  sealed  by  clot,  may  be  started  again, 
and  fatal  hemorrhage  result. 

"  The  only  treatment  which  unskilled  hands  can  adopt  is  to 
lay  the  patient  on  his  back  on  the  floor  or  sofa  with  the  head 
and  shoulders  somewhat  raised  ;  to  loosen  all  the  dress  round 
the  neck  and  body  ;  to  apply  cold  to  the  head  and  hot  flannels 
or  a  hot  bottle  to  the  feet  and  hands,  or  to  soak  them  in  hot 
mustard  and  water,  and  to  gently  rub  the  arms  and  legs." — Dr. 
J.  J.  Ridge. 

Dr.  Alfred  Smee,  surgeon  to  the  Bank  of  Eng- 
land, says : — 

"  Give  nothing  by  the  mouth.  Apply  a  stream  of  cold  water 
to  the  head.  If  the  feet  are  cold  apply  warm  cloths.  If  relief 
is  not  soon  obtained,  apply  hot  fomentations  to  the  abdomen, 
keeping  the  head  erect." 

BED-SORES  : — Some  object  to  using  alcohol  even 
as  an  outward  application.  Dr.  Ridge  recommends 
that  when  a  patient  is  confined  to  bed  the  parts 
pressed  on  be  well  washed  every  day  with  strong 
salt  and  water  or  alum  water,  and  carefully  dried. 
Glycerine  of  Tannin  may  then  be  applied.  If  any 
redness  appears,   especially  if  any  dusky  patch  is 


144  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

formed,  collodion  may  be  applied  with  a  brush,  and 
all  pressure  should  be  taken  off  the  part  by  a  circu- 
lar air-pillow  or  by  a  cushion ;  or  small  bran  or 
sand-bags  may  'be  made  and  carefully  arranged.  If 
the  skin  is  broken,  zinc  or  resin  ointment  may  be 
applied. 

Some  recommend  finely  powdered  iodoform 
sprinkled  over  the  surface  of  the  sore. 

Boils  and  Carbuncle  : — "  In  many  cases  these  troubles 
result  from  an  overloaded  condition  of  the  system,  which  is  the 
result  of  taking  too  much  food,  or  some  error  in  diet.  The 
boils  are  an  effort  of  nature  to  be  rid  of  offending  matter.  In 
some  cases  they  are  due  to  the  use  of  impure  water,  or  the 
presence  of  sewer  gas  in  the  house.  In  others,  overwork,  or 
•other  debilitating  causes,  may  have  produced  the  state  of  the 
digestive  organs  which  usually  causes  the  boils.  Carbuncle  is, 
essentially,  an  extensive  boil. 

"  Apply  iodine  early  or  a  piece  of  belladonna  plaster.  The 
diet  should  be  plain  and  unstimulating,  condiments  being 
avoided  and  plenty  of  fresh  vegetables  taken,  if  possible. 
Fresh-air,  exercise  and  proper  rest  should  be  obtained,  and 
late  hours  avoided. 

"  Medical  advice  is  requisite  in  carbuncle.  The  popular 
notion  that  port  wine  is  absolutely  necessary  is  both  erroneous 
and  mischievous." — Ridge. 

Catarrh  : — Among  the  causes  are  repeated 
colds ;  errors  in  diet,  especially  excess  in  the  use  of 
fats  and  sugar,  and  an  inactive  state  of  the  liver. 

Cut  off  from  your  bill  of  fare  all  salted  foods, 
avoid  fats  and  condiments  ;  drink  freely  of  pure 
water ;  live  in  the  open-air  and  sunshine  as  much  as 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  145 

possible,  taking  much  out-door  exercise.  Take  a 
cold  sponge  or  towel  bath  every  morning,  beginning 
at  the  face  and  finishing  by  plunging  the  feet  into 
a  foot-tub.  Follow  with  vigorous  rubbing  with  a 
crash  or  Turkish  towel.  Those  subject  to  sore 
throat  should  hold  the  head  over  a  basin  of  cold 
water  and  lave  the  neck  with  the  water  for  about 
two  minutes.  The  writer  was  formerly  subject  to 
frequent  sore  throats,  but  has  had  none  for  over 
two  years,  as  she  believes,  because  of  the  adoption 
of  this  measure,  together  with  the  towel  bath  every 
morning,  summer  and  winter. 

Care  should  be  taken  to  avoid  exposure  to 
draughts,  or  any  other  means  which  will  produce  lia- 
bility to  cold.  Care  in  diet,  good  ventilation  and  the 
morning  cold  bath  are  essential  if  a  radical  cure  is  de- 
sired. Local  measures,  while  giving  relief,  will  not 
remove  the  predisposing  causes.  Dr.  Kellogg  rec- 
ommends saline  solutions  in  the  form  of  the  nasal 
douche,  a  teaspoonful  of  salt  to  a  pint  of  soft  water, 
adding  twenty  to  thirty  drops  of  carbolic  acid,  if 
there  is  offensive  odor,  as  a  relief  measure. 

Sleeping  in  a  poorly  ventilated  room  is  said  to  be 
one  cause  of  catarrh. 

Hay  Fever  is  a  form  of  catarrh.  The  vapor 
bath  is  recommended  as  very  helpful  in  this  trouble. 
Nature  Cure  says  that  two  vapor  baths  and  a  two 
or  three  days'  fast  will  cure  any  case  of  hay  fever. 
The  use  of  pork  and  other  clogging  foods  should  be 


I46  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

avoided  by  those  afflicted  with  this  trouble.  The 
bowels  should  be  kept  in  good  condition.  If  con- 
stipated, the  use  of  prunes,  figs,  grapes,  apples  and 
other  such  fruits  will  be  very  beneficial  ;  walking, 
and  massage  of  the  bowels,  being  added  if  the  fruits 
are  not  sufficient.  No  one  able  to  walk  should 
depend  upon  drugs  to  relieve  a  constipated  condi- 
tion. 

Colds  : — "  If  the  bowels  are  constipated,  the  skin  over- 
burdened and  clogged  with  bilious  matter,  and  the  lungs  weak, 
it  is  as  easy  to  take  cold  as  to  roll  off  a  log.  If,  on  the  con- 
trary, the  lungs  are  well  developed,  and  the  respiratory  power 
large,  providing  abundant  oxygen  to  keep  bright  the  internal 
fires,  the  colon  clean,  the  skin  daily  washed,  and  the  system 
hardened  by  the  cold  bath,  taking  cold  is  next  to  impossible. 

"  The  first  remedial  agent  for  a  cold  should  be  a  copious 
enema.  Then  open  the  pores  of  the  skin  by  a  hot  bath  ;  take  a 
glass  of  hot  lemonade  and  go  to  bed." — The  New  Hygiene. 

Chills: — For  chill,  take  a  hot  foot  and  hand 
bath,  with  mustard  in  the  water,  %  pound  to  a 
gallon  ;  then  go  to  bed  in  a  well  ventilated  room. 
Drink  freely  of  hot  lemonade  or  hot  water.  Ca- 
tarrh, colds  and  hay  fever  may  all  be  effectually  re- 
lieved by  hot  baths.  Relief  may  be  gained  also 
from  inhaling  the  vapor  from  pine  needles  or  hem- 
lock leaves.  Put  them  in  a  bowl,  pour  boiling 
water  over  them,  hold  the  face  down  over  the  bowl, 
the  head  being  covered,  and  inhale  the  vapor  well 
up  into  the  nostrils  and  head.  A  few  drops  of 
hemlock  oil  in  the  hot  water  will  do  as  well. 

Coughs  and  Hoarseness  :— Boil  flaxseed  in  1 


ALCOHOL   AS   A   MEDICINE.  147 

pint  water,  strain,  add  two  teaspoons  honey,  I 
ounce  rock  candy,  and  juice  3  lemons.  Drink  hot. 
Also  ;  roast  a  lemon  till  hot,  cut,  and  squeeze  on  3 
ounces  powdered  sugar. 

Colic  : — This  may  arise  from  cold,  or  from  error 
in  diet.  If  the  latter  it  is  desirable  to  induce 
vomiting.  For  the  pain,  apply  hot  flannels  or 
fomentations ;  drink  hot  water.  In  severe  cases, 
sprinkle  a  little  turpentine  on  flannel,  wrung  from  hot 
water,  and  apply  to  abdomen.  Colic  resulting  from 
the  accumulation  of  fecal  matter  should  be  treated 
with  hot  enemas  until  relieved.  A  hot  hip-bath  is 
sometimes  necessary  to  relief. 

The  colic  of  children  and  infants  should  never  be 
treated  with  alcoholics.  In  infants  it  generally 
arises  from  excessive  or  improper  feeding ;  care 
should  be  taken  that  the  milk  provided  them  is  not 
sour. 

In  severe  cases  the  babe  should  be  immersed  in 
warm  water,  keeping  the  head  above  water,  of 
course.  This  is  also  the  best  remedy  in  convul- 
sions. The  hot  bath,  with  a  copious  enema  of 
warm  water,  has  saved  the  lives  of  many  babes. 

For  adults,  hot  water,  with  a  pinch  of  red  pepper 
added,  will  do  all  that  brandy  can  do,  and  more. 

CHOLERA  : — Brandy  has  been  considered  by  many 
a  really  necessary  medicine  in  cholera.  The  follow- 
ing is  a  discussion  upon  Alcohol  in  Cholera  which 
was   held    at   the   annual    meeting    of    the    British 


I48  ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE. 

Medical  Temperance  Association,  in  May,  1893,  and 
is  taken  from  the  Medical  Pioneer  of  June,  1893  : — 

"  Dr.  Richardson  opened  a  discussion  on  Cholera  in  relation 
to  Alcohol.  He  said  he  would  bring  forward  five  points  on  the 
subject. 

1.  The  negligence  among  the  people  at  large  produced  by 
alcohol  in  the  presence  of  a  cholera  epidemic.  There  was  no 
doubt  on  the  part  of  any  who  had  seen  an  epidemic  of  cholera 
as  to  the  mischief  done  by  alcohol,  apart  from  its  action  as  a 
remedy.  People  rush  to  the  public  houses  and  take  it  to  ward 
off  the  danger,  or  to  relieve  them  when  they  begin  to  feel  ill, 
and  the  result  is  very  bad  morally.  He  had  seen  this  in  differ- 
ent epidemics.  Or  people  got  in  spirits  to  face  the  danger,  and 
many  became  intoxicated  and  less  able  to  resist. 

2.  Its  misuse  by  those  affected.  It  was  often  given  to  cheer 
them  up  and  remove  their  fear  and  nervousness.  In  his  opinion 
it  invariably  produced  mischief. 

3.  He  wTas  unable  to  find  any  physiological  reason  for  giving 
it.  There  was  a  constant  drain  of  fluid,  causing  spasms  and 
cramp,  both  of  the  muscles  and  blood-vessels,  and  difficult  cir- 
culation through  the  lungs.  Spasm  may  be  relaxed  by  alcohol, 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  alcohol  is  exceedingly  greedy  of  water, 
and  so  increases  the  flux.  But  it  also  reduces  animal  tempera- 
ture, which  is  a  strong  feature  of  cholera,  so  much  so  that  he 
could  almost  diagnose  cholera  blindfold  in  the  stage  of  collapse, 
by  the  icy  coldness. 

4.  Its  uselessness  as  a  remedy  during  the  acute  stage.  He 
had  seen  a  great  deal  of  cholera  and  never  saw  alcohol  do  any 
good  whatever.  There  was  a  temporary  glow  which  passed 
away  in  a  few  minutes,  and  then  the  evil  it  does  in  other  ways 
was  brought  out.  Water  was  far  better,  even  if  cold.  The 
College  of  Physicians  had  given  some  instructions  and  ordered 
great  care  in  the  administration  of  alcohol ;  this  was  not  far 
enough,  but  good  as  far  as  it  went.     The  recoveries  were  best 


ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE.  I49 

where  the  treatment  was  simplest,  such  as  external  warmth 
with  plenty  of  diluents.     He  had  given  creasote  largely. 

5.  Its  injuriousness  during  the  stage  of  reaction.  The  reac- 
tive fever  following  collapse  caused  a  great  number  of  deaths. 
In  this  stage  alcohol  was  absolutely  poisonous.  He  could  re- 
call many  such  cases  in  which  he  had  given  alcohol  through 
ignorance,  and  always  with  disaster. 

"  Brigade-Surgeon  Pringle  said  that  when  he  went  out  to  India 
he  thought  alcohol  was  something  to  stand  by,  but  he  had  soon 
found  out  his  mistake  ;  he  had  himself  suffered  from  it.  He  could 
confirm  what  Dr.  Richardson  had  said  as  to  the  demoralization 
produced  by  alcohol  to  which  men  resort  to  keep  up  their 
spirits,  and  men  seized  under  these  circumstances  were  in  the 
greatest  danger.  Nature  effects  a  cure  in  many  cases  with- 
out assistance,  and  often  with  wonderful  rapidity.  People  ap- 
parently dead  and  about  to  be  buried,  he  had  known  to  get  up 
and  recover.  When  alcohol  is  given  during  collapse  there  is 
often  no  absorption  until  reaction  occurs,  and  then  the  quantity 
accumulated  speedily  produces  intoxication.  It  was  the  same 
with  opium  ;  he  had  found  pills  unchanged  in  the  stomach  for 
hours.  He  recommended  hot  drinks  ;  he  had  tried  every  kind 
of  medicine  and  had  little  faith  in  it.  The  nursing  was  very 
important,  and  it  was  important  that  the  nurses  should  abstain. 

"  Dr.  Morton  said  it  was  easy  to  see  that  on  physiological 
grounds  alone,  alcohol,  with  its  strong  affinity  for  water  and  its 
tendency  to  lower  temperature,  could  not  be  a  useful  drug  in 
the  treatment  of  cholera  collapse,  and  with  its  powers  of  par- 
alyzing vascular  inhibition  and  checking  elimination  of  effete 
matter,  could  not  be  otherwise  than  harmful  in  the  stage  of  re- 
action. As  these  conclusions  were  corroborated  by  practical 
experience  he  did  not  think  members  would  hesitate  to  banish 
it  from  their  equipment  against  cholera. 

"  Dr.  Ridge  said  it  should  be  remembered  that  Doyen  had 
made  experiments  on  guinea-pigs  and  had  found  they  were 
proof  against  cholera,  unless  they  had  previously  had  a  dose  of 


150  ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE. 

alcohol.  This  explained  why  drunkards  and  hard  drinkers 
were  so  much  more  liable  to  have  cholera,  and  have  it  badly  as 
all  observers  declared  to  be  the  case.  Another  reason  might 
be  that  small  quantities  of  alcohol,  such  as  would  be  found  cir- 
culating in  the  blood,  favored  the  growth  and  multiplication 
of  bacteria,  certainly  those  of  decomposition,  and  probably 
those  of  cholera.  Hence,  other  things  being  equal,  the  abstainer 
had  a  great  advantage. 

"  Dr.  Norman  Kerr  said  that  he  had  observed  both  in  America 
and  Glasgow  that  not  only  notorious  drunkards  but  free 
drinkers  suffered ;  abstainers  were  less  liable  unless  they  took 
contaminated  water,  and  the  less  liquid  taken  the  less  chance 
of  taking  cholera  ;  beer-drinkers  often  took  more  than  abstain- 
ers. The  alcohol-drinker  uses  up  more  water  from  his  blood 
and  so  has  less  to  flush  out  the  system.  Alcohol,  given  to  a 
patient,  disguised  his  condition  so  that  he  might  seem  better 
though  really  worse.  Hence  it  is  better  and  safer  not  to  give 
any.  The  doctors  and  nurses  ought  to  be  abstainers.  A  doc- 
tor after  dinner  was  more  likely  to  take  a  roseate  view  of  a 
case,  looking  at  it  through  an  alcoholic  pair  of  spectacles.  Al- 
cohol was  not  really  a  stimulant,  but  a  depressant,  and  this  is  a 
very  depressing  disease  ;  it  was  important  to  have  our  vital  re- 
sisting power  as  vigorous  as  possible.  Hot  water  both  relaxes 
and  stimulates,  and  the  whole  cry  of  the  sufferer  is  for  water. 
Many  persons  who  died  in  cholera  did  not  die  of  the  disease, 
but  of  the  drugs  such  as  alcohol  and  opium.  Acid  drinks 
should  be  given,  as  the  bacilli  could  not  live  in  acid  mixtures. 
Cholera  might  come,  but  he  believed  we  were  better  prepared 
to  meet  it  and  to  treat  it. 

"  Surgeon-General  Francis  sent  a  communication  which  was 
read  by  the  Honorable  Secretary.  He  said :  '  Having  had 
many  opportunities  of  treating  cholera  in  various  parts  of  India 
and  amongst  all  classes,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  affirming  that 
alcohol  in  any  shape  is  one  of  the  very  worst  remedies.  Life 
is,  so  to  speak,  paralyzed,  and  we  give  a  remedy  which,  appar- 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  151 

ently  stimulating,  is  in  reality  a  paralyzer  and  therefore  mis- 
chievous ;  the  death-rate  might  be  considerably  reduced  pro- 
vided alcohol  were  rigidly  excluded.'  " 

Dr.  Norman  Kerr  in  a  valuable  paper  upon 
Cholera  says  : — ■ 

"  The  first  thing  is  to  get  rid  of  the  poison.  How  ?  By  as- 
sisting it  out ;  but  alcohol  keeps  it  in  by  blocking  the  doors, 
just  as  the  doors  were  blocked  in  the  terrible  calamity  at  Sun- 
derland not  long  ago.  The  alcohol  makes  the  heart  and  circu- 
lation labor  more.  Alcohol  not  only  retains  the  cholera  poison, 
but  retards  the  action  of  the  heart.  Brandy  and  opium  used  to 
be  employed,  but  the  records  show  that  if  the  object  had  been 
to  make  cholera  as  fatal  as  possible,  that  object  was  achieved 
by  the  indiscriminate  administration  of  brandy  and  opium. 
Better  leave  the  victim  alone,  and  his  chances  of  recovery  will 
be  greater  than  if  he  have  a  thousand  doctors,  and  as  many 
nurses,  administering  to  him  brandy  and  opium.  Alcohol  is 
especially  dangerous  in  the  third  stage,  that  of  reactive  fever, 
because  it  adds  to  the  fever.  Then,  alcohol  is  not  only  unsafe 
in  the  three  stages  of  genuine  cholera,  but  especially  unsafe  in 
the  premonitory  diarrhoea  stage,  which  gives  nearly  every  one 
warning  before  they  are  attacked  by  genuine  cholera.  Brandy 
is  taken  simply  because  it  puts  away  the  pain.  If  there  are 
only  the  pain  and  slight  diarrhoea,  speaking  medically,  it  is  all 
right,  but  if  there  is  anything  behind  the  pain,  it  is  all  wrong. 
After  the  alcohol,  the  mischief  is  going  on,  only  the  patient  does 
not  know  it,  and  valuable  time  is  lost.  All  the  alcohol  does  is 
to  deaden  sensation.  *****  Here  I  can  thoroughly  recom- 
mend ice  and  iced  water.  I  have  always  treated  cholera  patients 
with  these.  Let  them  drink  iced  water  to  their  hearts'  content ; 
they  can  never  drink  too  much ;  and  this  opinion  is  fortified  by 
that  of  Professor  Maclean,  of  Netley.  There  is  no  need  of  a 
substitute  for  brandy  in  cholera,  because  in  ordinary  circum- 
stances in  that  disease  the  action  of  a  stimulant  is  bad.     Flush- 


152  ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE. 

ing  of  the  blood  is  required,  and  water  will  do  it.  Milk  will 
not  do  it,  because  it  is  too  thick — nothing  but  pure,  cold  water, 
all  the  better  if  iced." 

In  1893  Dr.  Ernest  Hart,  editor  of  the  British 
Medical  Journal,  read  an  able  paper  upon  Cholera 
before  the  American  Medical  Association.  His 
argument  was  that  the  introduction  of  such  a  sub- 
stance as  alcohol,  itself  being  a  product  of  germ  ac- 
tion, into  a  system  already  suffering  from  the  toxic 
influence  of  a  ptomaine,  could  not  be  otherwise 
than  pernicious. 

Cholera  Morbus  :— Dr.  Kellogg  says :  "  The  stomach 
should  be  washed  by  means  of  the  stomach-tube  when  possible. 
A  large  hot  enema  should  be  given  after  each  evacuation  of 
the  bowels.  The  addition  of  tannin,  one  drachm  to  a  quart  of 
water,  is  serviceable.  When  the  vomited  matter  no  longer 
shows  signs  of  food,  efforts  should  be  made  to  stop  the  vomit- 
ing. Give  the  patient  bits  of  ice  the  size  of  a  bean  to  swallow 
every  few  minutes.  At  the  same  time  apply  hot  fomentations 
over  the  stomach  and  bowels.  If  the  patient  suffer  much  from 
cramp,  put  him  into  a  warm  bath.  The  first  food  taken  should 
be  farinaceous.  Oatmeal  gruel,  well  boiled  and  strained,  is 
useful." 

Cholera  Infantum  : — "Iced  water  may  be  given  in  very 
small  quantities  every  few  minutes.  Give  the  stomach  entire 
rest  for  at  least  twenty-four  hours.  There  will  be  no  suffering 
for  want  of  food  as  long  as  the  stomach  is  in  such  a  condition. 
Withhold  milk  until  nature  has  had  time  to  rid  the  alimentary 
canal  of  the  poison-producing  germs.  White  of  egg  dissolved 
in  water  is  an  excellent  preparation  in  these  cases.  Egg  ene- 
mata  may  also  be  advantageously  used. 

"  Warm  baths,  the   hot  blanket  pack  when   the  surface  is 


ALCOHOL   AS   A   MEDICINE.  1 53 

cold,  and  the  hot  enema  are  all  useful.     Keep  the  child  wrapped 
warmly. 

"  Great  care  should  be  taken  in  returning  to  the  milk  diet. 
The  milk  should  be  thoroughly  sterilized  by  boiling  for  half  an 
hour,  and  should  be  mixed  with  some  barley  water  so  as  to 
avoid  the  formation  of  large  curds  in  the  stomach.  Cream, 
diluted  with  water,  may  be  used  instead  of  milk." 

CONSUMPTION. 

Dr.  Koch,  the  celebrated  German  microscopist, 
pronounces  consumption  contagious,  because  during 
its  progress  a  very  minute  bacterium  is  developed 
which  may  be  transmitted  from  one  person  to 
another. 

It  is  said  that  a  person  with  healthy  lungs  might 
daily  breathe  millions  of  tubercle  bacilli  without 
any  danger,  and  that  the  best  preventive  of  this 
disease  is  to  live  much  in  the  open  air,  or  if  this  is 
impossible  to  spend  ten  or  fifteen  minutes  a  day  in 
deep  breathing  exercises  in  the  open  air.  "  Fresh- 
air  and  disease-germs  are  antagonistic." 

Alcohol,  chiefly  in  the  form  of  whisky,  has  been 
considered  by  many  as  not  only  a  cure  of  consump- 
tion, if  a  cure  is  possible,  but  also  as  a  prophylactic 
or  preventive,  of  great  service  to  those  predis- 
posed to  this,  disease  by  reason  of  narrow  chest 
and  weak  lungs.  This  belief  has  made  many 
drunkards. 

Dr.  B.  W.  Richardson  was  the  first  scientist  who 
showed  plainly  that  alcohol,  instead  of  being  a  pre- 
ventive of  consumption,  is  really  the  sole  cause  of 


154  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

one  type  of  this  disease,  the  type  now  classed  under 
the  head  of  "  alcoholic  phthisis."  For  this  kind  of 
phthisis  there  is  no  cure. 

Dr.  N.  S.  Davis  in  the  Bulletin  for  April,  1896, 
had  a  lengthy  article  upon  "  The  Development  of 
Pulmonary  Tuberculosis,"  in  which  he  cited  in- 
stances of  consumption  in  different  drinking  persons 
who  had  come  under  his  care.     He  says : — 

"  In  the  first  class,  numbering  68  cases,  the  disease  uniformly 
commenced,  and  regularly  progressed  through  its  first  and 
second  stages,  while  the  subjects  of  it  were  at  the  time,  and 
had  been  for  from  one  to  twelve  years  previous,  regularly  and 
habitually  using  alcoholic  drinks,  either  fermented  or  distilled. 
In  33  of  these  cases  the  disease  was  developed  between  the 
ages  of  sixteen  and  thirty  years;  in  18,  between  thirty  and 
forty  years  ;  in  7,  between  forty  and  fifty  years ;  and  in  10, 
between  fifty  and  sixty  years. 

"  The  average  duration  of  the  disease  in  those  who  remained 
under  observation  until  a  fatal  result  was  reached,  was  nineteen 
months,  dating  from  the  time  when  the  patient  began  to  be 
troubled  with  cough. 

11  In  the  second  class,  numbering  91  cases,  were  included 
many  who  had  long  used  alcoholic  drinks,  and  sometimes  in 
excess,  but  not  as  a  daily  habit ;  while  others  in  this  group 
drank  but  very  sparingly,  and  only  on  some  social  occasion. 

"  In  50  of  these,  the  disease  was  developed  between  the  ages 
of  sixteen  and  thirty  years  ;  28  between  the  ages  of  thirty  and 
forty  years  ;  6  between  forty  and  fifty  years ;  and  7  between 
fifty  and  sixty  years.  The  average  duration  of  the  disease,  in 
those  who  remained  under  observation  until  the  fatal  result  was 
reached,  was  twenty-three  months. 

"The  third  class,  numbering  51,  includes  a  larger  relative 
proportion  of  females  than  either  of  the  other  classes.    In  21, 


ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE.  155 

the  disease  commenced  between  the  ages  of  sixteen  and  thirty- 
years  ;  in  17,  between  thirty  and  forty  years;  in  9,  between 
forty  and  fifty  years  ;  in  4,  between  fifty  and  sixty  years.  The 
average  duration  of  the  disease  in  those  who  died,  was  twenty- 
five  months. 

"  From  the  foregoing  collection  of  facts,  it  will  be  observed 
that  in  one-third  of  the  whole  number  of  cases  the  tubercular 
disease  commenced  and  progressed  through  all  its  stages, 
while  the  subjects  of  it  were,  at  the  time,  and  had  been  from 
one  to  twelve  years  previous,  habitually  using  either  fermented 
or  distilled  spirits.  It  is  thus  clearly  demonstrated  that  the  use 
of  alcoholic  beverages,  however  uniform  their  administration, 
and  however  long  continued,  neither  prevents  the  development 
of  tubercular  phthisis,  nor  retards  the  rapidity  of  its  progress. 

"  If  we  turn  from  the  narrow  circle  of  personal  observation 
to  more  general  inquiries,  we  shall  be  forced  to  the  same  con- 
clusion. Thus,  by  the  sickness  and  mortality  reports  of  the 
English  and  American  armies,  it  is  made  apparent  that 
soldiers  who  use  regular  rations  of  alcoholic  liquors  furnish  a 
higher  ratio  of  mortality  than  any  equal  number  of  men  who 
do  not  use  such  liquors.  So  true  is  this,  that  many  army  sur- 
geons have  regarded  the  free  use  of  alcoholic  drinks  as  one  of 
the  prominent  causes  of  consumption. 

"  Again,  the  statistics  compiled  by  Dr.  Bell,  of  New  York,  in 
his  prize  essay  on  this  subject,  led  him  to  the  conclusion  not 
only  that  alcoholic  drinks  did  not  prevent  the  development  of 
tubercular  disease,  but  that  their  use  actually  favored  it. 

"  The  foregoing  results  of  my  own  clinical  observations,  cor- 
roborated as  they  are  by  all  the  reliable  statistics  to  be  found  in 
the  literature  of  the  profession,  are  also  in  strict  accordance 
with  the  rational  inferences  to  be  drawn  from  the  known  effects 
of  alcohol  upon  the  various  functions  of  the  human  system. 
By  a  series  of  experiments  commenced  in  1849,  and  continued 
at  intervals  until  the  present  time,  I  have  fully  satisfied  myself 


156  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

that  the  presence  of  alcohol, in  the  human  system  positively 
diminishes  the  important  functions  of  respiration,  capillary  cir- 
culation, calorification  and  metamorphosis  of  tissue  ;  and,  as  a 
necessary  consequence,  leads  to  diminished  excretion,  and  to 
the  accumulation  of  effete  matter,  both  in  the  blood  and  the 
tissues.  This  is  corroborated  by  the  experiments  of  Dr.  Boker, 
showing  that  the  presence  of  alcohol  in  the  system  diminishes 
the  sum  total  of  all  the  excretions  and  eliminations ;  and  by  the 
uniform  tendency  to  fatty  degeneration  in  the  muscles,  the 
liver,  the  kidneys,  etc.,  in  those  who  have  been  long  accustomed 
to  use  alcoholic  liquors.  If  the  presence  of  alcohol  thus  dimin- 
ishes the  exchange  of  oxygen  and  carbonic  acid  in  the  lungs,  as 
well  as  the  sum  total  of  all  the  excretions,  and  retards  both 
capillary  circulation  and  calorification,  it  is  easy  to  see  how  its 
habitual  use  would  lead  to  deficient  oxidation,  and  metamor- 
phosis of  tissues,  and,  consequently,  to  accumulation  of 
adipose  matter,  fatty  degenerations  and  morbid  deposits  ;  but 
it  is  extremely  difficult  to  conceive  how  it  should  act  as  a  tonic 
or  invigorating  agent. 

"  Although  the  object  of  this  paper  is  simply  to  give  the 
results  of  clinical  observations  on  the  use  of  alcoholic  drinks, 
as  prophylactics  against  tuberculosis,  it  may  not  be  amiss  to 
allude  to  their  influence  or  value  as  remedial  agents  after  the 
disease  is  already  fully  developed.  For  it  by  no  means  follows 
that  if  the  beverages  are  shown  to  be  useless  as  prophylactics 
in  preventing  the  development  of  tubercles,  they  are  therefore 
equally  useless  as  remedies. 

"  Since  the  popularity  of  cod-liver  oil  began  to  wane,  it  i ; 
probable  that  no  remedies  have  been  more  generally  used  in 
the  treatment  of  all  stages  of  phthisis  than  the  alcoholic  stimu- 
lants. And  when  taken  freely,  their  anaesthetic  effect  on  the 
nerves  of  respiration,  diminishing  cough  ;  their  exhilaration  of 
the  brain,  relieving  mental  despondency ;  and  their  diminution 
of  organic  change,  or  metamorphosis  of  tissue,  by  which  the 
progressive  emaciation  is  retarded,  and   the  fatty  matter  re- 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  1 57 

tained— all  contribute  to  give  them  an  apparently  beneficial 
effect,  at  least  temporarily,  that  has  increased  their  popularity, 
both  in  and  out  of  the  profession.  In  endeavoring  to  trace 
the  effects  of  alcohol  on  the  development  and  progress  of  tub- 
erculosis through  a  series  of  years,  I  have  met  with  many  cases 
of  the  disease  in  the  second  and  third  stages  of  its  advance- 
ment, in  which  any  form  of  alcoholic  drink  so  directly  and  mani- 
festly deranged  either  the  stomach  or  the  brain  that,  after  a 
few  trials,  the  patient  would  voluntarily  refuse  to  take  any 
more.  I  have  met  with  many  more  who  would  take  this  class 
of  agents  for  a  few  weeks,  with  apparent  amelioration  of 
symptoms,  when  they  would  begin  to  create  acid  eructations, 
burning  in  the  stomach,  and  sometimes  vomiting,  with  almost 
entire  loss  of  appetite.  I  have  met,  also,  with  a  smaller  class 
of  patients  who  could  take  them  freely  for  any  length  of  time, 
without  either  deranging  the  stomach,  or  the  brain,  and  with  a 
decided  amelioration  of  all  the  pulmonary  symptoms,  and  an 
arrest  of  the  emaciation.  Some  of  these  have  actually  in- 
creased in  embonpoint,  and  for  three  to  six  months  were  highly 
elated  with  the  hope  that  they  were  recovering.  But  truth 
compels  me  to  say  that  I  have  never  seen  a  case  in  which  this 
apparent  improvement  under  the  influence  of  alcoholic  drinks 
was  permanent.  On  the  contrary,  even  in  those  cases  in 
which  the  emaciation  seems  at  first  arrested,  and  the  general 
symptoms  ameliorated,  the  physical  signs  do  not  undergo  a 
corresponding  improvement ;  and,  after  a  few  months,  the 
digestive  function  becomes  impaired  ;  the  emaciation  begins  to 
increase  more  rapidly  than  ever ;  and  in  a  few  weeks  the  pa- 
tient is  fatally  prostrated. 

"  From  all  the  facts,  experiments  and  clinical  observations 
that  have  come  under  my  notice,  I  am  led  to  the  following  con- 
clusions : — 

1.  "That  the  development  of  tubercular  disease  is  facili- 
tated by  all  those  agents  and  influences,  whether  climatic  or 
hygienic,   which     directly  or  indirectly  impair  or  retard  the 


158  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

metamorphosis  of  the  organized  structures,  and  the  efficiency 
of  the  excretory  functions. 

2.  "  That  observations  and  carefully  devised  experiments 
both  show  that  the  presence  of  alcohol  in  the  human  system, 
notwithstanding  its  temporary  exhilaration  of  the  cerebral  func- 
tions, positively  retards  both  metamorphosis  and  elimination. 

3.  "  That  neither  the  action  of  alcoholic  stimulants  on  the 
functions  of  the  human  body,  nor  the  actual  results  of  experi- 
ence furnish  any  evidence  that  these  agents  are  capable  of  pre- 
venting or  retarding  the  development  of  tubercular  phthisis." 

This  passage  occurs  in  a  new  French  treatise  on 
medicine  published  under  the  supervision  of 
Bouchard  and  Charnot,  in  the  article  "Alcoholism," 
by  M.  Richardiere  : — 

"Alcohol  cannot  produce  disease  of  itself,  but  it  greatly 
favors  it  by  preparing  the  soil  by  which  the  tuberculous  germ 
is  rendered  fruitful.  The  tuberculosis  thus  created  is  generally 
a  tuberculosis  of  advanced  age ;  it  runs  a  rapid  course.  The 
granular  sputa  are  thin,  and  accompanied  by  abundant  hemor- 
rhages, which  are  facilitated  by  a  previous  bad  condition  of  the 
pulmonary  vessels.  Very  often  the  tuberculosis  of  alcoholics  is 
accompanied  by  grave  hepatic  disturbances  under  the  form  of 
fatty  or  tubercular  cirrhosis." 

Dr.  Newell  Martin  says : — 

"  The  lungs,  from  the  congested  state  of  their  vessels  pro-, 
duced  by  alcohol,  are  more  subject  to  the  influence  of  cold,  the 
result  being  frequent  attacks  of  bronchitis.  It  has  also  been 
recognized  of  late  years  that  there  is  a  peculiar  form  of  con- 
sumption of  the  lungs  which  is  very  rapidly  fatal,  and  found 
only  in  alcohol-drinkers." 

Dr.  Woodbury,  of  the  Philadelphia  Medical  So- 
ciety, says  : — 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  1 59 

"  Nothing  in  clinical  medicine  is  more  certain  than  that  the 
continual  use  of  alcohol,  in  even  moderate  doses,  stimulates  the 
development  of  connective  tissue  all  over  the  body;  nothing  in 
pathology  more  evident  than  the  fact  that  alcohol  is  a  prolific 
source  of  pulmonary  disease ;  nothing  in  toxicology  better 
established  than  the  observation  of  the  action  exerted  by  alco- 
hol upon  the  respiratory  centre.  For  this  reason  it  is  especially, 
dangerous  in  pulmonary  consumption." 

Dr.  Ezra  M.  Hunt  says  : — 

"  In  the  whole  management  of  lung  diseases,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  few  who  can  always  be  relied  upon  to  befriend  alco- 
hol, other  remedies  have  largely  superseded  all  spirituous 
liquors." 

For  several  years  past  a  set  of  proprietary  medi- 
cines, claiming  to  be  specifics  in  all  lung  troubles, 
have  been  extensively  advertised  in  religious  as  well 
as  secular  papers.  Samples  are  freely  offered  to  all 
who  apply.  Upon  the  label  of  one  of  the  bottles 
said  to  be  an  "  infallible  cure  for  consumption,"  the 
following  directions  appear  : — 

"  Take  two  teaspoonfuls  in  half  a  wine  glass  of  pure  whisky 
just  before  each  meal.  Ladies  and  delicate  invalids  sometimes 
prefer  sherry  wine  to  the  whisky." 

It  is  unlikely  that  any  of  the  religious  papers  in- 
serting advertisements  of  these  preparations  have 
ever  noticed  the  whisky  and  wine  recommendation 
-on  these  bottles,  or  probably  they  would  refuse  to 
be  party  to  making  drunkards  of  poor  mortals  pre- 
disposed to,  or  afflicted  with,  lung  difficulties. 

Rev.  J.  M.  Buckley,  D.D.,  editor  of  The  Christian 
Advocate y  was  in   early  manhood  considered  an  in- 


l6o  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

curable  consumptive.  Being  a  man  of  great  will 
power  and  indomitable  perseverance,  he  resolved  to 
try  the  open-air  cure,  together  with  the  use  of  an 
inspirator.  The  result  was  perfect  restoration  to 
health,  so  that,  as  is  well  known,  he  can  be  easily 
heard  by  audiences  of  thousands  at  Chautauqua 
«.nd  other  places  where  he  is  greatly  in  request  for 
lectures.  He  has  written  a  pamphlet  giving  a  full 
history  of  his  case.  It  can  be  obtained  from  Eaton 
&  Mains,  150  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York,  for  fifty 
cents,  and  should  be  read  by  all  consumptives  who 
have  any  "grit  "  in  their  composition. 

Dr.  Forrest,  a  hygienic  physician,  says : — 

"  What  is  to  be  done  if  the  germs  have  already  obtained 
lodgement  in  the  lungs  ?  Increase  the  general  nutrition  of  the 
body  in  every  way,  and  then  the  lungs  can  resist  the  inroads  of 
the  disease.  The  first  thing  necessary  to  improve  the  nutrition 
'  of  the  body  is  to  stimulate  the  digestive  and  absorbent  functions 
of  the  stomach  and  intestines.  Naturally  then,  you  must  throw 
the  so-called  cough  medicines  out  of  the  window.  The  drugs 
used  to  stop  a  cough  are  sedatives.  Now,  no  sedative  or  nau- 
seam is  known  that  does  not  lock  up  the  natural  secretions 
and  thus  lessen  the  digestive  powers.  The  cough  is  nature's 
method  of  expelling  offending  matter  from  the  lungs  and  bron- 
chial tubes.  It  is  infinitely  better  to  have  this  stuff  thrown  out 
of  the  lungs  than  retained  there." 

Keep  the  bowels  clean  is  this  physician's  next 
recommendation. 

Sweet  cream  is  preferable  to  cod-liver  oil  as  it  is 
not  so  likely  to  derange  the   stomach.     Easily  di- 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  l6l 

gested  food  is  necessary,  as  the  organs  of  digestion 
are  in  weakened  condition. 

Again  Dr.  Forrest  says : — 

"  The  consumptive  should  live  as  much  as  possible  in  the 
open  air. 

"  Dr.  Trudeau  inoculated  twelve  rabbits  with  tubercle  or  con- 
sumptive germs.  Six  of  these  he  turned  loose  on  an  island 
where  they  ran  wild.  The  other  six  were  kept  confined  in 
hutches  such  as  rabbits  are  usually  kept  in.  Results — All  the 
six  rabbits  in  the  open  air  recovered  from  the  inoculation  and 
remained  well.  Five  of  the  confined  rabbits  died  of  tubercles  in 
the  lungs  and  different  parts  of  the  body.  The  sixth  was  still 
lingering,  badly  diseased,  when  the  experiment  was  brought  to 
a  close.  Fresh  air  and  exercise  enabled  the  first  six  to  overcome 
the  disease  germs.  Confinement  gave  full  play  to  the  disease  in 
the  others. 

"  Now,  you  house  lovers,  sleepers  in  close  bedrooms,  people 
afraid  of  cold  air,  you  are  the  rabbits  in  the  hutches.  Beware, 
lest  the  verdict  be  in  your  case,  '  Died  of  tubercles  in  the 
lungs.'  If  you  are  not  able  to  leave  your  home,  live  with  open 
windows,  day  and  night,  summer  and  winter. 

u  Exercise  systematically,  especially  those  exercises,  accom- 
panied by  deep  breathing,  that  open  and  strengthen  the  lungs — 
exercises  without  fatigue. 

"  If  you  are  hoping  that  some  wonderful,  mysterious  drug 
has  been  or  will  be  discovered,  a  drug  that  will  cure  consump- 
tion without  your  help,  you  are  hoping  against  hope.  Improved 
nutrition  is  your  salvation,  and  that  must  come  through  exercise, 
diet  and  fresh  air." 

Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg,  in  his  Home  Hand-BooZ'  of 
Hygiene  and  Medicine,   recommends  a  salt   sponge 


l62  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

bath  upon  retiring,  to  arrest  night  sweats,  or  spong- 
ing with  hot  water.     He  adds  : — 

"  It  is  important  that  patients  should  know  that  the  sweats 
are  greatly  aggravated  by  opium  in  any  form,  and  hence  are  in- 
creased by  cough  mixtures  of  any  sort  which  contain  this  drug. 
Very  simple  remedies  are  often  effective  to  relieve  the  most 
distressing  cough,  such  as  gargling  of  water  in  the  throat, 
holding  bits  of  ice  in  the  mouth,  taking  occasional  sips  of 
strong  lemonade,  and  similar  remedies.  As  a  general  rule, 
patients  run  down  and  the  disease  progresses  much  more 
rapidly,  after  beginning  the  use  of  opium  in  any  form.  Some- 
times it  is  best  that  the  cough  should  be  encouraged  instead  of 
being  repressed.  When  the  patient  expectorates  very  freely, 
'he  cough  is  a  necessary  means  of  relieving  the  chest  of  matters 
which  would  seriously  interfere  with  the  functions  of  the  lungs 
if  retained,  by  filling  up  the  bronchial  tubes  and  air-cells.  The 
kind  of  cough  needing  relief  is  an  irritable,  ineffective  cough, 
unaccompanied  by  any  considerable  degree  of  expectoration. 
Loaf  sugar,  honey  or  a  mixture  of  honey  and  lemon  juice,  and 
other  simple,  familiar  remedies  are  often  effective  in  relieving 
such  a  cough.  ***** 

"  It  is  perhaps  needless  to  add  that  the  numerous  quack 
remedies  for  consumption  advertised  in  the  newspapers  are 
wholly  without  merit.  There  is  no  known  drug  which  will  cure 
this  disease,  or  in  any  certain  degree  influence  its  progress. 
Numerous  remedies  have  been  recommended  as  curative,  but 
not  one  has  thus  far  stood  the  test  of  experience." 

DlPH*TriERlA  : — Diseases  of  all  kinds  result  from 
violation  of  health  laws.  The  external,  immediate 
occasion  of  the  development  of  diphtheria  is  usually 
a  cold  ;  the  real  cause  is  impure  matter  in  the  blood, 
accumulating  for  weeks  or  months,  until  the  normal 
resisting   power,    possessed     by   those    in    perfect 


ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE.  1 63 

health,  is  exhausted,  and  the  system  is  unable  to 
longer  conquer  invading  disease  germs. 

Whisky  and  brandy  are  looked  upon  by  many 
physicians  as  absolutely  necessary  in  diphtheria. 
Not  long  ago  the  daughter  of  a  prohibition  father  and 
a  W.  C.  T.  U.  mother,  died  of  malignant  diphtheria. 
The  doctor  in  attendance  told  the  sorrowing  pa- 
rents that  her  death  was  due  to  their  refusal  to 
allow  him  to  give  her  whisky.  He  was  a  very 
young  man,  or  he  would  have  remembered  that 
multitudes  of  diphtheria  patients  die,  although 
liberally  dosed  with  his  wonderful  and  sure  cure. 

Dr.  H.  D.  Didama,  Dean  of  the  Medical  College 
of  Syracuse  University,  New  York  State,  says  : — 

"  The  prevailing  opinion  of  the  great  majority  of  wise  and 
otherwise  physicians — an  opinion  founded  in  part  on  personal 
observation  and  perhaps  in  greater  part  on  the  oral  or  printed 
dicta  of  other  physicians — is  that  alcohol  is  a  stimulant ;  that 
it  gives  strength  to  a  flagging  heart  ;  that  its  use  is  eminently 
proper  in  pneumonia  and  typhoid  fever,  when  the  pulse  is 
weak ;  and  that,  in  these  and  all  other  diseases,  the  amount 
administered  should  be  constantly  increased  as  the  pulse  grows 
weaker ;  and  also  that  in  diphtheria  heroic  doses  are  not  only 
justifiable,  but  almost  omnipotent,  in  rescuing  the  patient  from 
the  jaws  of  death. 

"  Years  ago  a  celebrated  Brooklyn  physician  advocated  the 
free  use  of  brandy  in  this  dread  disease.  This  practice — modi- 
fied in  some  instances  by  substituting  whisky  or  wine  for 
brandy — has  been  pursued  extensively  throughout  this  country 
and  foreign  lands.  An  eminent  doctor,  of  large  and  varied  ex- 
perience in  a  children's  hospital  in  New  York,  heartily  indorses 
the  practice,  and  asserts  that  large  doses  of  alcohol  have  little 


164  ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE. 

or  no  intoxicating  effect  on  diphtheritic  infants.  In  one  of  the 
latest  books  on  children's  diseases,  a  writer  declares  that  the 
reason  why  whisky  so  often  fails  in  the  treatment  of  diphtheria 
is  because  it  is  not  given  in  larger  quantities.  ***** 

"  In  the  treatment  of  diphtheria,  it  has  been  the  custom  of 
not  a  few  physicians  to  administer  Rhine  or  MOselle  wine  in 
decided  preference  to  brandy  or  whisky.  The  comparatively 
beneficial  effects  noted  must  be  attributed  to  the  considerable 
amount  of  vegetable  acid  in  the  wine,  and  not  to  the  small  por- 
tion of  alcohol.  There  is  reason  to  hope  that  unfermented 
wine,  which  contains  all  the  desirable  qualities  of  the  grape, 
with  none  of  its  harmful  properties,  will  supersede  the  intoxi- 
cating variety. 

"  The  free  use  of  alcohol  in  the  treatment  of  diphtheria 
throughout  Europe  and  in  some  American  cities,  has  been 
almost  universal.  The  mortality,  according  to  reported  statis- 
tics, has  been  appalling.  The  deaths  in  the  metropolis-at  home 
have  been  forty-seven  per  cent.,  while  in  Paris,  Berlin  and 
other  cities  abroad,  they  have  reached  the  enormous  number  of 
more  than  sixty  out  of  one  hundred  cases. 

"  If  the  antitoxin  treatment,  which  is  under  hopeful  but  still 
somewhat  unsettled  consideration,  shall  be  proved  to  possess 
all  the  merits  which  its  discoverers  and  friends  -claim,  there  will 
be  no  excuse  for  continuing  the  employment  of  alcohol  in  the 
treatment  of  diphtheria. 

"  Curiously  enough,  in  the  last  report  from  abroad,  which  has 
just  been  furnished  by  Dr.  Rabot,  of  Lyons,  the  success  of 
antitoxin  in  curing  and  preventing  the  -dreadful  disease  is  con- 
sidered by  the  doctor  as  specially  'brilliant,'  the  mortality  in 
forty-seven  cases  being  but  thirty-four  per  cent.,  while  the  mor- 
tality in  1893  was  fifty  per  cent.  ;  and  he  significantly  and  jubi- 
lantly adds,  '  No  alcohol  was  given.' 

"  It  is  just  possible  that  some  incredulous  caviler  will  suggest 
that  the  more  favorable  outcome— bad  enough  as  it  still  is — 


ALCOHOL  AS  A    MEDICINE.  l6$ 

was  because  the  customary  alcohol  was  not  used  ;  and  he  may 
even  insinuate  that  the  result  might  have  been  equally  good 
had  the  antitoxin  also  been  omitted." 

Dr.  N.  S.  Davis  tells  of  a  case  where  he  was 
called  as  a  consulting  physician  when  the  patient 
was  thought  to  be  dying.  A  young  man  previously 
in  good  health,  during  the  first  two  weeks  of  a  fair 
attack  of  diphtheria,  took  from  twelve  to  sixteen 
ounces  of  whisky  per  day,  and  at  the  end  of  that 
time  had  well-marked  enteric  typhoid  symptoms, 
suppuration  in  the  middle  ear  and  one  thigh,  and 
so  much  feebleness  of  circulation  as  to  have  been 
twice  thought  to  be  dying ;  then  the  whisky  was 
suddenly  and  entirely  omitted,  and  instead  of  fatal 
collapse  he  soon  began  to  improve,  and  in  one  week 
was  convalescent. 

The  doctor  adds  to  his  account  this  remark: — 

"  Could  there  be  any  more  direct  or  stronger  clinical  proof 
that  the  alcohol  acted  neither  as  a  stimulant,  a  cardiac  tonic 
nor  a  conservator  of  tissue  ;  but  as  a  '  nerve  paralyzer,'  an  in- 
hibitor of  oxygenation  and  decarbonization  of  the  blood  and  a 
promoter  of  tissue  degeneration  and  suppuration  ?  " 

Dr.  T.  R.  Chambers,  of  East  Orange,  N.  J.,  re- 
lated some  time  ago  in  Archives  of  Pediatrics  his 
experience  with  several  diphtheria  cases,  which 
throws  light -upon  the  use  of  alcohol  in  this  disease. 
The  following  is  his  article  : — 

"  During  last  August,  having  attended  nine  cases  of  diphthe- 
ria, and  since  having  had  several  other  cases  treated  without 
alcohol  in  any  form,  I  feel  competent  to  draw  conclusions,  one 


166  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

of  which  is  at  variance  with  the  old-established  lines  of  treat- 
ment. 

"  A  boy  nine  years  old,  who  had  recently  grown  very 
rapidly  and  was  of  the  neurotic  type,  not  at  all  strong,  easily 
excited  when  crossed  in  any  way,  was  very  sick  with  diphthe- 
ria. The  membrane  covered  the  roof  of  the  mouth,  palate, 
tonsils  and  posterior  nares.  After  the  disease  was  over,  these 
parts  showed  considerable  change  in  appearance,  and  there 
was  paralysis  of  the  parts  as  a  sequence.  The  swallowing  act 
was  incomplete  ;  a  portion  of  the  liquid  taken  into  the  mouth 
came  out  of  the  nose,  this  condition  lasting  for  about  two  months. 
Four  other  members  of  the  family  suffered  in  like  manner,  only 
in  less  degree  and  without  the  paralysis  sequence.  But  the 
contagion  was  there.  I  regret  that  microscopic  examination 
was  not  made. 

"  The  constitutional  symptoms  were  most  marked.  In  the 
case  of  the  boy  cited,  there  was  excessive  exhaustion,  with 
rapid,  weak  pulse  and  sluggish  circulation  for  about  ten  days. 
Several  times  he  seemed  near  death.  It  was  during  and  for 
this  condition  that  whisky  or  old  wine  was  urgently  recom- 
mended by  me. 

"  The  mother,  a  most  thoughtful  and  patient  woman,  deter- 
mined that  if  her  boy  once  tasted  alcohol,  he  would  certainly  fill 
a  drunkard's  grave,  and  she  took  the  responsibility  upon  her- 
self of  deciding  that  he  must  not  have  it.  She  said,  '  If  whisky 
be  necessary  for  his  life,  let  him  die  now.' 

"He  received  no  whisky  and  recovered.  One  minim  of 
Squibb's  tr.  nucis  vomicae  was  given  every  half  hour  and  less 
often,  according  to  the  pulse  and  general  condition.  It  was 
wonderful  to  note  how  well  it  took  the  place  of  alcohol.  The 
other  medicinal  treatment  of  the  case  was  simple  calomel  in 
frequent  small  doses,  and  a  mixture  of  tr.  iron  with  chlorate  of 
potash,  together  with  beef  peptonoids,  broths  and  milk,  pushed 
to  the  limit  of  his  digestion. 


ALCOHOL  AS  A    MEDICINE.  167 

"  The  local  treatment  was  directed  to  keeping  the  throat 
almost  constantly  under  the  influence  of  steam,  carbolized,  and 
with  bichloride  steam  spray.  Peroxide  of  hydrogen  was  tried 
in  the  beginning,  but  had  to  be  stopped  on  account  of  the  irri- 
tation it  caused.  As  to  the  father  of  the  child,  nothing  further 
was  needed  to  dispel  the  deposit  in  his  throat  than  twenty-four 
hours'  use  of  the  peroxide. 

"  Local  applications  were  made  by  the  nurses  and  parents  in 
several  of  the  cases  treated  with  papoid  glycerole.  All  agreed 
there  was  benefit  in  the  procedure. 

"  The  circumstances  in  the  case  of  the  boy  were  all  against 
his  recovery,  the  faithful  but  injudicious  and  over-indulgent 
parents  often  undoing  and  hindering  the  progress  at  critical 
moments.  Notwithstanding,  the  boy  recovered  without  alcohol. 
All  the  other  cases  were  treated  without  whisky,  tr.  nux  taking 
its  place  where  necessary,  and  all  recovered. 

"  The  author  is  not  a  prohibitionist,  but  believes  the  whisky 
heretofore  considered  by  him  the  best  heart  tonic  in  this  disease 
is  not  a  sine  qua  non  ;  and  when  the  patient  is  a  child,  which, 
of  course,  is  not  yet  addicted  to  its  use,  the  nux,  or  nux  and 
digitalis,  or  nitro-glycerine,  are  better  than  whisky. 

"  There  are  many  reasons  why  whisky  is  objectionable,  and 
none  against  a  careful  use  of  a  good  tr.  nux. 

"  In  some  of  the  cases,  instead  of  calomel,  bichloride  was 
employed  in  doses  of  one  hundredth  of  a  grain  hourly,  and  its 
exhibition  is  without  doubt  abortive." 

The  following  experience  of  a  prominent  physi- 
cian was  given  at  a  meeting  where  diphtheria  was 
under  discussion  : — 

"  In  one  year  I  lost  four  cases  of  diphtheria  in  which  I  had 
given  alcohol  freely  from  the  start.  They  were  malignant, 
but  all  the  conditions  and  surroundings  were  the  best  for 
recovery.     I  followed  the  theory  urged  by  a  medical  teacher 


1 68  ALCOHOL   AS   A   MEDICINE. 

of  much  prominence,  that  alcohol  was  a  valuable  antiseptic, 
and  that  in  this  disease  its  injurious  effects  would  be  neutra- 
lized by  the  poison. 

"The  next  five  cases  of  this  disease  were  in  tenement-houses, 
where  all  the  conditions  were  unfavorable  for  recovery.  No 
alcohol  was  given,  and  yet  every  case  recovered.  From  that 
experience  I  have  abandoned  alcohol  in  all  stages  of  diphtheria, 
and  am  confident  that  the  recoveries  are  greater  in  number, 
and  the  convalescence  shorter." — Medical  Bulletin. 

Dr.  Norman  Kerr,  of  England,  says : — 

"  There  are  two  complaints  about  which  I  am  continually 
being  worried,  namely,  bronchitis  and  diphtheria  ;  people  want 
me  to  give  alcohol  and  I  will  not  do  so.  Many  doctors  order 
whisky  and  milk  even  to  young  infants,  but  the  results  are  bad 
to  the  patients.  I  think  it  is  very  bad  in  bronchitis  to  give  that 
which  interferes  with  the  oxygenation  of  the  blood.  But  if  I  do 
not  give  it  I  am  afraid  it  is  often  given  surreptitiously.  In 
diphtheria  it  is  also  very  dangerous ;  they  are  knocked  down 
entirely,  and  if  the  patient  is  depressed  and  his  nervous  energy 
destroyed,  what  a  risk  to  give  a  further  nerve-depressant  I 
The  more  they  have  the  lower  they  get." 

In  a  lengthy  discussion  upon  the  use  of  alcohol 
in  diphtheria,  Dr.  N.  S.  Davis  has  the  following  : — 

"  In  view  of  the  foregoing  facts  relating  to  the  effects  of  alco- 
hol or  whisky  or  brandy  in  '  full  doses  '  on  the  functions  of  f 
digestion,  tissue  metabolism  and  vital  resistance  to  infection,  it  ' 
is  not  sui  prising  that  under  the  very  liberal  administration  of 
alcohol  in  the  treatment  of  diphtheria  which  prevailed  prior  to 
the  introduction  of  the  serum  therapy,  the  ratio  of  mortality 
had  come  to  range  from  forty  to  sixty  per  cent. ;  or  that  thirty- 
three  per  cent,  of  all  the  deaths  were  attributed  to  '  heart- 
failure.'  Neither  is  it  surprising  to  find  that  in  proportion  as 
the  attention  of  the  physician   has  become  engrossed  in   the 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  169 

use  of  antitoxins,  or  serum  therapy,  he  has  used  less  alcohol, 
resulting  in  a  greatly  reduced  mortality  ;  i.  e.,  from  eight  to 
twenty- five  per  cent.  Judging  from  an  extensive  personal  ex- 
perience, I  am  quite  sure  that  if  the  use  of  the  antitoxin 
serums  had  been  permitted  to  exclude  entirely  the  use  of 
alcohol,  whisky  and  brandy  in  the  treatment  of  diphtheria,  the 
ratio  of  mortality  would  have  been  still  further  reduced. 

"  Most  of  the  recent  writers  and  teachers  appear  to  overlook 
one  very  important  indication  in  the  management  of  diphtheria 
and  all  other  infectious  diseases  ;  that  is,  to  promote  the  elimina- 
tion not  only  of  the  specific  infection,  but  also  of  the  excretory 
products  of  7iatural  tissue  metabolism.  The  neglect  of  this 
latter  has  often  resulted  in  a  degree  of  auto-infection  more  fatal 
to  the  patient  than  the  specific  toxin  from  without.  Indeed,  it 
is  no  exaggeration  to  claim  that  eight  tenths  of  all  the  deaths 
from  diphtheria  are  determined  by  failure  of  the  functions  of  the 
heart,  the  respiratory  organs,  or  the  kidneys.  And  yet  every 
physiological  and  therapeutic  investigator  tells  us  that  '  full 
doses '  of  alcohol  directly  impair  each  and  all  of  these  func- 
tions, and  if  continued  in  very  large  doses,  suspend  them  al- 
together. Yet  the  routine  of  text-books  on  the  practice  of 
medicine  continue  to  recommend  the  giving  of  '  full  doses  * 
of  whisky  or  brandy  in  all  severe  cases  of  diphtheria,  typhoid 
fever,  pneumonia,  etc.,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  these 
diseases,  and  of  course  continue  to  record  numerous  deaths 
from  failure  of  the  heart,  laryngeal  and  pulmonary  obstruction, 
and  renal  congestion." 

Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg  in  his  large  and  very  valuable 
work,  The  Home  Hand-Book  of  Hygiene  and  Medi- 
cine, says  that  diphtheria  germs  are  often  found  in 
the  throat  of  persons  apparently  enjoying  perfect 
health.  The  germs  are  most  often  found  in  the 
little  pockets  which  exist  in  enlarged  and  diseased 
tonsils. 


170  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

In  the  prevention  of  this  disease  it  is  necessary 
to  maintain  a  thoroughly  healthy  state  of  the 
throat.  Diseased  tonsils  are  active  as  a  predispos- 
ing cause  of  diphtheria. 

Dr.  Kellogg  says  in  regard  to  the  treatment  of 
this  disease : — 

"  There  is  no  known  means  by  which  the  growth  and  devel- 
opment of  germs  may  be  more  efficiently  checked  than  by  the 
use  of  cold  applications  which  should  be  made  to  the  throat 
externally,  and  the  patient  should  be  allowed  to  hold  bits  of  ice 
in  the  mouth,  and  to  swallow  them  occasionally.  The  cold  ap- 
plications must  be  made  thoroughly  enough  to  reduce  the 
temperature  of  the  throat  as  near  the  freezing  point  as  the 
patient  can  endure  without  suffering,  as  otherwise  it  will  do 
almost  nothing  towards  modifying  the  morbid  process.  The 
best  mode  of  accomplishing  this  is  to  apply  to  the  throat  com- 
presses composed  of  several  folds  of  linen  or  cotton,  between 
which  are  placed  numerous  bits  of  ice,  or  small  quantities  of 
snow.  The  compress  must  be  large  enough  to  cover  the  throat, 
and  extend  well  around  the  sides  of  the  neck.  Once  an  hour 
the  cold  compress  may  be  removed,  and  the  throat  fomented 
for  ten  minutes. 

"  To  alleviate  the  difficulty  in  breathing,  and  swallowing,  and 
to  facilitate  the  removal  of  the  false  membrane,  no  single  rem- 
edy is  so  efficient  as  the  inhalation  of  hot  vapor.  ***** 

"  Constant  irrigation  of  the  nasal  cavity  and  throat  with  a 
weak  solution  of  common  salt  has  been  used  with  great  success 
in  the  New  York  Hospital  for  Children." 

Nature  Cure  says  : — 

"Fasting  is  imperative,  as  in  all  sickness.  A  cup  of  hot 
lemonade  or  orangeade  should  be  given  every  hour  to  cleanse 
the  blood,  and  thus  remove  the  cause." 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  171 

Hygienic  physicians  in  this,  as  in  all  acute  diseases, 
advise  first  a  full  enema,  or,  as  they  term  it,  "  the 
flushing  of  the  colon."  This  is,  undoubtedly,  the 
best  possible  method  of  quickly  ridding  the  pa- 
tient's body  of  much  poisonous  matter.  Their  next 
measure  is  to  open  up  the  pores  of  the  skin  by  a 
hot  bath,  wet  sheet  pack,  or  vapor  bath.  The  wet 
sheet  pack  is  best  for  children.  If  the  patient  is 
chilly,  wring  the  sheet  out  of  hot  water  ;  if  feverish, 
out  of  cold  water ;  at  the  same  time  apply  the  cold 
compress  to  the  throat. 

For  local  treatment  they  recommend  a  gargle  of 
equal  parts  of  salt,  borax  and  baking  soda,  dissolved 
in  water.  Withhold  food  until  the  patient  is  really 
hungry. 

The  negroes  of  the  South  use  pineapple  juice 
freely  in  diphtheria.  A  mother  in  New  York  State 
whose  son  was  very  ill  with  malignant  diphtheria 
thinks  pineapple  juice  was  very  helpful  in  his  case. 

Dr.  Delthel  of  the  French  Academy  of  Medicine 
states  that  the  vapors  of  liquid  tar  and  turpentine 
I  will  dissolve  the  matter  which  chokes  the  throat  in 
1  croup  and  diphtheria.  "  Pour  equal  parts  of  tar 
and  turpentine  into  a  tin  pan.  Set  fire  to  the  mix- 
ture.   The  smoke  arising  will  loosen  the  membrane." 

Debility  : — "  The  debility  of  convalescence  requires  fresh  air, 
easily  digested  food,  the  avoidance  of  over-exertion,  with  a 
gradually  increasing  amount  of  exercise.  Such  debility  is  only 
aggravated  by  alcohol,  though  it  may  for  a  time  be  partially 
masked  thereby.      Milk,   eggs,   fresh    fruit     and    farinaceous 


172  ALCOHOL  AS  A    MEDICINE. 

articles  are  the  best  foods.  General  debility  without  obvious 
cause,  may  be  treated  by  cold  or  tepid  bathing.  Salt  added  to 
the  bath  is  helpful.  Change  of  air  is  a  good  tonic.  Port  wine 
and  other  alcoholics  while  giving  a  false  sensation  of  increased 
vigor,  really  reduce  the  tone  of  the  pulse,  and  therefore  tend  to 
enfeeble  the  system.     Alcohol  is  a  relaxant,  not  a  tonic." 

Depression  of  Spirits  :— "  Learn  the  Delsarte  exercise 
for  the  '  blues,'  and  practice  them  daily.  Hot  air  baths. 
Avoid  rich  food.     Take  out-door  exercise." 

Diarrhcea: — "This  is  a  symptom  of  the  presence  of  an 
irritant  of  which  the  stomach  is  trying  to  be  rid.  Do  not  arrest 
it  permaturely,  but  assist  it.  If  it  persists,  arrowroot,  or  corn 
starch,  or  flour,  mixed  with  cold  water  to  the  consistency  of 
cream  may  be  taken,  a  tablespoonful  at  a  time.  2.  Bread 
charcoal  with  cold  milk.  3.  A  tablespoonful  of  cinnamon 
water  with  a  teaspoonful  of  lime  water,  mixed,  every  one,  two 
or  three  hours.  Smaller  dose  for  a  child.  Diet  should  be  con- 
fined to  toast,  milk  toast,  milk,  cold  or  boiled.  Tea,  broth, 
meat,  etc.,  are  sure  to  renew  the  trouble.  Diarrhoea  in  infants 
is  generally  due  to  errors  in  feeding,  either  over-feeding  or  the 
use  of  improper  kinds  of  food.  Boiled  milk  thickened  with 
flour  is  a  simple  remedy  in  light  cases.  Alcoholics,  are 
utterly  unnecessary  in  diarrhcea,  and  to  order  them  for  young 
children  is  quite  wrong.  A  full  enema  of  wTater,  as  hot  as  can 
be  borne,  will  remove  offending  substances  from  the  bowels. 

"  BewTare  of  diarrhcea  medicines  containing  opium  in  any  form. 
They  are  unnecessary  and  dangerous,  particularly  for  young 
children."  v 

Dysentery  : — "  At  the  beginning  of  the  disease  the  stomach 
should  be  relieved  by  the  use  of  a  large  warm-water  emetic. 
The  quantity  of  food  should  be  restricted  to  the  smallest 
amount  compatible  with  comfort.  Ripe  fruits,  especially  grapes, 
and  most  stewed  fruits,  may  be  used  in  abundance  to  keep  the 
bowels   regular.      Salads,   spices   and  other   condiments,   fats 


ALCOHOL  AS  A    MEDICINE.  173 

and  fried  foods  should  be  strictly  avoided,  together  with  tea, 
coffee,  alcoholics  and  all  other  narcotics. 

"  The  diet  should  consist  chiefly  of  simple  soups,  well  boiled 
oatmeal  gruel,  egg  beaten  with  water  or  milk,  and  similar  foods. 
In  many  cases  regulation  of  the  diet  is  sufficient.  Either  the 
1  hot  or  the  cold  enema  may  be  employed. 

"  The  use  of  opium,  which  is  exceedingly  common  in  this 
disease,  is  not  advisable,  as  it  produces  a  feverish  condition  of 
the  system,  decidedly  prejudicial  to  recovery.  Herroner,  an 
eminent  German  physician,  very  strongly  discourages  the  use 
of  opium  in  this  disease." — Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg. 

Dyspepsia  : — "  It  is  commonly  supposed  that  a  little  good 
whisky  or  brandy  aids  digestion,  while  on  the  contrary  it  has 
been  proved  conclusively  by  observing  the  processes  of  diges- 
tion upon  persons  who  have  fistula  of  the  stomach,  or  by  evac- 
uating the  contents  of  the  stomach  by  means  of  a  stomach- 
pump  about  an  hour  after  taking  a  meal — in  one  instance  after 
taking  an  ounce  of  alcohol,  and  in  another  where  no  alcohol 
was  taken — that  alcohol  coagulates  the  albuminoids,  throws 
down  the  pepsin,  decreases  the  acidity  (the  combined  chlorin 
and  free  hydrochloric  acid),  and  increases  the  fixed  chlorids. 
Any  one  can  make  the  observation  upon  himself,  that  a  meal 
taken  without  alcohol  is  more  quickly  followed  by  hunger  than 
one  with  it. 

"  Blumenau  says  :  '  On  the  whole,  alcohol  manifests  a  decid- 
edly unfavorable  influence  on  the  course  of  normal  digestion 
even  when  ingested  in  relatively  small  quantities,  and  impairs 
the  normal  digestive  functions.' 

"  Dr.  Chittenden,  professor  of  physiologic  chemistry  in  Yale 
College,  as  a  result  of  some  investigations  made  by  himself  and 
Dr.  Mendel,  states  in  the  American  Journal  of  Medical 
Sciences,  that  he  finds  that  as  small  a  quantity  as  three  per 
cent,  of  sherry,  porter,  or  beer  lessens  the  activity  of  the  diges- 
tive powers." — BuHetin  of  A.  M.  T.  A. 


174  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

"  It  should  be  observed  that  doses  of  alcohol  which  have  no 
appreciable  effect  in  delaying  digestion,  are  so  small  as  to  be 
practically  useless  for  any  beneficial  action." — 'Medical  Pioneer. 

One  doctor  writes: — 

"What  makes  dyspepsia  so  hard  to  cure?  This  very 
alcohol  taking.  The  best  cure  is  to  refuse  all  alcoholic  drinks, 
at  meals  and  all  other  times,  and  drink  nothing  but  water." 

The  causes  of  dyspepsia  are  various  ;  errors  of 
diet  being  the  most  common.  Others  are  mental 
worry,  care  and  anxiety,  and  the  use  of  drugs. 
An  eminent  writer  upon  this  disease  says  : — 

"  My  main  object  in  the  treatment  is  to  prevent  the  sufferers 
from  resorting  to  drugs,  which  in  such  cases,  not  only  produce 
their  own  morbid  conditions,  but  also  confirm  those  already  ex- 
isting. 

"The  extensive  and  often  habitual  use  of  alkalies  for  acidity, 
of  purgatives  for  constipation,  nervines  and  opiates  for  sleep- 
lessness, and  after-dinner  pills  to  goad  into  action  the  lagging 
stomach,  has  been  a  potent  factor  in  the  production  of  a  large 
class  of  most  inveterate  dyspepsias." 

Underdone  bread,  cake,  and  pie,  are  unfit  for  any 
stomach,  yet  are  seen  upon  many  tables.  "  Break- 
fast foods,"  cooked  for  ten  or  twenty  minutes,  are 
also  dyspepsia  producers.  All  breads,  cakes,  pies 
and  cereals,  require  thorough  cooking  to  fit  them 
for  digestion.  Most  cereals  are  better  for  supper 
than  for  breakfast,  as  they  should  be  cooked  in  a 
double  boiler  for  several  hours.  A  young  man, 
troubled  with  dyspepsia,  learned  to  his  amazement 
that  the  oatmeal,  which  he  supposed  was  his  best 
food,  had    much  to    do  with  the  giddiness   which 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  1 75 

often  overcame  him.  He  was  advised  to  use  dry 
foods,  such  as  toast,  zwieback  and  shredded  wheat. 
This  diet,  together  with  the  abandonment  of  nos- 
trums, led  to  a  cure.  Zwieback  is  bread  sliced,  and 
dried  in  a  moderate  oven  until  light  brown.  Whole 
wheat  bread  is  best.  It  is  very  delicious  and  is 
quite  easily  digested.  In  the  case  of  the  young 
man,  it  is  probable  that  the  difficulty  with  the  oat- 
meal was  the  lack  of  sufficient  cooking.  Oatmeal 
made  into  gruel,  well  cooked,  and  diluted  with  a 
large  quantity  Of  scalded  milk  is  easy  of  digestion. 
Eating  between  meals,  and  excess  in  eating,  lead 
to  stomach  derangement. 

"  The  best  remedy  for  acidity  of  the  stomach  is  hot-water 
drinking.  Two  or  three  glasses  should  be  taken  as  hot  as  can 
be  sipped,  one  hour  before  each  meal,  and  half  an  hour  before 
going  to  bed.  The  effect  of  the  hot  water  is  to  wash  out  the 
stomach,  and  so  remove  any  fermenting  remains  of  the  previ- 
ous meal.     Heartburn  may  be  treated  the  same  as  acidity." 

Persons  troubled  with  slow  digestion  are  better 
to  eat  only  two  meals  a  day.  The  writer  has  per- 
sonal knowledge  of  a  goodly  number  of  women  who 
have  been  benefited  wonderfully  by  adopting  the 
two  meal  a  day  plan. 

Some  persons,  much  troubled  with  dyspepsia, 
have  adopted  the  plan  of  prolonged  fasting  advo- 
cated by  Dr.  Dewey,  and  testify  to  a  cure  by  this 
method.  While  heroic,  it  is  certainly  more  rational 
than  drug  treatment.  For  acute  dyspepsia  a  fast 
is  requisite. 


176  ALCOHOL   AS   A   MEDICINE. 

All  that  alcoholics  can  do  for  dyspepsia  is  to 
allay  the  uneasy  sensations  for  a  time,  while  adding 
to  the  trouble.  It  has  been  abundantly  proved 
that  alcohol  must  pass  from  the  stomach  before 
digestion  can  begin. 

Dr.  Ridge  says  : — 

"  Many  cases  which  seem  to  be  relieved  by  the  use  of  beer 
are  really  benefited  by  the  hop,  or  other  bitter,  which  the  ale  or 
beer  contains.  Hop  tea  is  a  useful  stomachic,  and  a  quarter  of 
a  pint,  or  half  that  quantity,  may  be  taken  cold.  It  is  made  in 
the  same  way  as  tea,  using  a  handful  of  hops  to  a  pint  of  boil- 
ing water.     Make  fresh  every  day." 

Dr.  Kellogg  says  : — 

V  In  cases  of  chronic  dyspepsia  the  use  of  alcohol  seems  to  be 
particularly  deleterious,  although  not  infrequently  prescribed,  if 
not  in  the  form  of  alcohol  or  ordinary  alcoholic  liquors,  in  the 
form  of  some  so-called  '  bitters,'  '  elixir '  or  '  cordial.'  Nothing 
could  be  further  removed  from  the  truth  than  the  popular 
'  notion  that  alcohol,  at  least  in  the  form  of  certain  wines,  is 
helpful  to  digestion.  Roberts  showed,  years  ago,  that  alcohol 
even  in  small  doses,  diminishes  the  activity  of  the  stomach  in 
the  digestion  of  proteids.  Gluzinski  showed,  ten  years  ago, 
that  alcohol  causes  an  arrest  in  the  secretion  of  pepsin,  and 
also  of  its  action  upon  food.  Wolff  showed  that  the  habitual 
use  of  alcohol  produces  disorder  of  the  stomach  to  such  a  de- 
gree as  to  render  it  incapable  of  responding  to  the  normal  ex- 
citation of  the  food.  Hugounencq  found  that  all  wines,  without 
exception,  prevent  the  action  of  pepsin  upon  proteids.  The 
most  harmful  are  those  which  contain  large  quantities  of  alco- 
hol, cream  of  tartar  or  coloring  matter.  Wines  often  contain 
coloring  matters  which  at  once  completely  arrest  digestion,  such 
as  methylin  blue  and  fuchsin. 

"  A  few  years  ago  I  made  a  series  of  experiments  in  which  I 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  IJJ 

administered  alcohol  in  various  forms  with  a  test  meal,  noting 
the  effect  upon  the  stomach  fluid  as  determined  by  the  accurate 
chemic  examination  of  the  method  of  Hayem  and  Winter. 
The  result  of  these  experiments  I  reported  at  the  1893  meeting 
of  the  American  Medical  Temperance  Association.  The  sub- 
ject of  experiment  was  a  healthy  young  man  whose  stomach 
was  doing  a  slight  excess  of  work,  the  amount  of  combined 
chlorin  being  nearly  fifty  per  cent,  above  normal,  although  the 
amount  of  free  hydrochloric  acid  was  normal  in  quantity. 
Four  ounces  of  claret  with  the  ordinary  test  meal  reduced  the 
free  hydrochloric  acid  from  28  milligrams  per  100  c.  c.  of 
stomach  fluid  to  zero,  and  the  combined  chlorin  from  .270  to 
.125.  In  the  same  case  the  administration  of  two  ounces  of 
brandy  with  the  ordinary  test  meal  reduced  the  combined 
chlorin  to  .035,  scarcely  more  than  one  eighth  of  the  original 
amount,  the  free  hydrochloric  acid  remaining  at  zero.  Thus 
it  appears  that  four  ounces  of  claret  produced  marked  hypo- 
pepsia  in  a  case  of  moderate  hyperpepsia,  whereas  two  ounces 
of  brandy  produced  practically  apepsia." 

Fainting  or  Syncope:— The  following  letter 
from  the  late  Sir  B.  W.  Richardson  was  addressed 
to  a  lady  who  had  sought  the  great  physician's 
advice  on  the  subject : — 

"25  Manchester  Square,  WM  July  18,  1896. 
"  Dear  Madam  :  There  is  no  substance  which  acts  as  a 
substitute  for  alcohol,  nor  is  anything  like  it  wanted.  The 
human  body  is  a  water  engine,  as  I  have  often  described  it, 
and  alcohol  plays  no  part  in  its  natural  motion.  The  idea 
that  when  it  begins  to  fail,  a  stimulant  has  to  be  called  for, 
springs  merely  from  habit,  and  if,  whenever  any  of  the  symptoms 
of  fainting  you  speak  of  occur,  the  person  merely  lies  down  on 
the  side  or  back  and  drinks  a  glass  of  hot  water,  or  hot  milk 
and  water,  all  that  can  be/  done  is  done.  In  the  London 
Temperance  Hospital  I  have  been  treating  the  sick  for  diseases 


178  ALCOHOL   AS   A   MEDICINE. 

of  all  kinds  and  during  all  stages,  and  have  never  administered 
a  minim  of  alcohol,  or  any  substitute  for  it,  and  we  have  got  on 
better  than  when  I — feeling  it  at  all  times  at  command — made 
use  of  it  in  the  ordinary  way. 

"  I  am,  dear  Madam,  faithfully  yours, 
"  B.  W.  Richardson." 

Treatment  :— "  Lay  the  patient  down  in  a  current  of  air  with 
the  feet  raised  higher  than  the  head,  preferably  on  one  side  in 
case  of  sickness  occurring,  or  bend  the  head  down  to  the  knees, 
to  restore  the  flow  of  blood  to  the  brain.  Loosen  all  clothing. 
Rub  the  limbs,  chest  and  over  the  heart  with  the  hand  or  a 
rough  towel.  Sprinkle  cold  water  on  the  head  and  face.  Smell 
ammonia,  strong  vinegar,  smelling  salts  or  any  pungent  odor. 
Put  hot  bottles  to  the  feet,  and  in  severe  cases  a  mustard 
plaster  over  the  heart.  Sip  hot  milk,  hot  water,  hot  tea,  hot 
black  coffee,  beef  tea  or  a  meat  essence.  Crowding  round  the 
patient  and  all  excitement  should  be  avoided.  In  999  cases  out 
of  1,000,  no  medicine  is  necessary. 

"  Faintness  often  proceeds  from  indigestion,  flatulence  induc- 
ing pressure  on  the  heart." 

Faintness,  Weakness,  Exhaustion,  Fatigue  :— "  The 
truth  is  that  for  simple  weakness,  faintness,  exhaustion,  fatigue, 
cold  or  wet,  the  best  remedies  are  simple  fresh  air,  pure  water, 
digestible  food  and  rest.  These  are  nature's  restoratives,  and 
the  sooner  both  physicians  and  people  learn  to  rely  upon  them 
instead  of  upon  drugs  the  better  it  will  be  for  all  parties.  And 
as  the  effect  of  alcoholic  liquors  are  directly  depressing  to  the 
strength  and  activity  of  all  the  natural  functions  and  processes 
of  life,  as  shown  by  the  most  varied  and  scientific  investigations, 
it  is  important  that  this  fact  be  taught  to  both  doctors  and 
people  everywhere." — Dr.   N.   S.    Davis. 

Fits  : — "  Whether  the  fit  be  apoplexy  or  epilepsy  all  alco- 
holics are  extremely  bad,  both  at  the  time  and  afterwards.  AIcot 
hoi,  the  '  genius  of  degeneration,'  is  the  chief  cause  of  apoplexy, 


ALCOHOL   AS   A   MEDICINE.  1 79 

and  also  a  cause  of  epilepsy,  especially  when  taken  in  the  form 
of  beer.  It  diminishes  the  tone  of  the  arteries  and  blood-vessels, 
and  thus  tends  to  cause,  aggravate  and  maintain  a  congested 
state  of  the  capillaries  throughout  the  whole  body.  In  the  treat- 
ment of  epilepsy,  therefore,  neither  alcohol  nor  any  so-called 
substitute  should  be  given.  ***** 

"In  the  convulsions  of  children  alcohol  is  equally  injurious.". — 
Dr.  Ridge. 

Flatulence: — "  Many  uneasy  sensations  or  pains,  even  in 
distant  parts  of  the  body,  are  due  to  wind  in  the  bowels,  result- 
ing from  indigestion.  Asthma,  cramps,  depression  of  spirits, 
faintness,  giddiness,  hiccough,  prostration,  sinking  sensations 
and  sleeplessness,  are  all  frequently  due  to  the  same  cawse. 
The  diet  needs  careful  attention  where  there  is  much  flatulence  ; 
tea  is  often  a  cause.  Charcoal  biscuits  are  useful  in  some 
cases  ;  lemon  juice  in  others.  Fluid  Magnesia  may  be  taken. 
Watch  for  the  cause  and  remove  it." 

Headache  : — The  New  Hygiene  says  :  "  This  is  the  mani- 
festation of  a  deeper-seated  trouble,  usually  in  the  stomach. 
The  use  of  stimulants  is  a  sure  promoter  of  headache.  All 
users  of  alcoholic  liquors  are,  I  believe,  subject  to  headache, 
and  it  is  also  a  sure  result  of  overindulgence  in  tea  and  coffee. 

"  To  prevent  the  attacks,  live  regularly,  avoid  late  hours  and 
excessive  brain  work ;  avoid  tea,  coffee  and  alcoholic  beverages, 
also  sweets  of  all  kinds,  including  sauces  and  pastries,  and  any- 
thing fried  in  fat.  Eat  plenty  of  good,  plain  food,  including 
fruit,  especially  oranges.  Eat  none  late  at  night.  Exercise 
regularly  in  such  a  way  as  to  bring  all  the  muscles  into  play, 
at  least  once  a  day. 

"To  relieve  an  attack  flush  the  colon. 

"  Headaches,  which  so  largely  result  from  the  retention  of 
impure  matter  in  the  body,  will  be  cured  if  a  good  quantity, 
say  two  or  three  glasses,  of  hot  water  be  drank  in  the  morning 
or  at  night,  and  then  the  next  regular  meal  omitted,  so  that  aa 


180  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

interval  of  house-cleaning  can  be  had  before  other  material  is 
moved  in." — Life  and  Health. 

"  Avoid  pills  and  powders.  Persons  suffering  from  headache 
need  to  be  warned  against  taking  remedies  that  contain  opium 
and  alcohol,  and  also  against  the  use  of  a  recent  popular 
remedy,  usually  called  a  '  white  powder '  or  '  white  tablet.* 
They  take  the  latter  readily  because  the  druggist  or  physician 
says  it  contains  no  opium.  This  is  true,  but  it  is  one  of  the 
lately  discovered  coal  tar  preparations  (anti-febrine,  acetanilid, 
etc.)  and  is  very  depressing  to  the  human  system.  Headache 
is  usually  a  symptom  of  trouble  somewhere  else,  often  in  the 
alimentary  canal,  and  overloaded  stomach,  constipation,  or 
tight  clothing.  Learn  the  cause  and  remove  that,  and  the 
headache  will  disappear." — Dr.  H.  J.  Hall,  Franklin,  Ind. 

"  Gentle  massage  is  helpful  and  the  use  of  cold  compresses. 
Lack  of  sufficient  sleep  will  cause  headache.  Women  often 
bring  on  nervous  headache  by  overwork  and  worry. " 

Hemorrhage  : — "  Never  give  alcohol  in  a  ease  of  profuse 
hemorrhage.  The  faint  feeling,  or  irresistible  inclination  to  lie 
down  is  nature's  own  method  of  circumventing  the  danger,  by 
quieting  the  circulation  and  lessening  the  expulsive  force  of  the 
heart,  thus  favoring  the  formation  of  clot  at  the  site  of  the 
injury." — Clinique. 

"  For  uterine  hemorrhage  an  emetic  to  induce  vomiting  is 
the  best  cure." — Dr.  Higginbotham  in  British  Medical  Journal. 

"  If  the  faint  is  dispelled  too  quickly,  and  the  blood-vessels 
are  relaxed  by  alcohol,  or  the  heart  aroused  to  energetic  action 
by  any  remedy,  the  hemorrhage  may  recommence,  and  may 
prove  fatal.  Quiet,  the  application  of  cold,  pressure,  the  eleva- 
tion of  the  wound  where  possible,  and  the  absence  of  stimulants, 
are  the  cardinal  points  of  treatment  in  most  cases." — Dr. 
Ridge. 

"  If  then,  it  seems  absolutely  necessary  to  rouse  a  person  out 
of  a  dead  faint,  what  can  be  done  ?     Swallowing  is  out  of  the 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  l8l 

question,  lest  the  patient  choke.  The  head  must  be  laid  low, 
and  the  face  and  chest  flapped  with  a  cold  wet  cloth,  or  alter- 
nately with  hot  wet  cloths  ;  smelling  salts  (not  too  strong)  may 
be  applied  to  the  nose. 

"  When  the  faint  has  been  recovered  from,  but  the  hemor- 
rhage continues  so  much  that  it  is  feared  another  faint  may 
occur,  and,  perhaps,  be  fatal,  it  may  be  warded  off  by  drinking: 
any  hot  liquid  ;  if  Liebig's  extract  of  meat,  or  strong  beef  tea,  is 
at  hand  and  can  be  given  hot,  there  is  nothing  better." 

Heart  Disease: — Dr.  Ridge  says:  "I  trench  here  on  a 
delicate  subject,  because,  when  there  is  real  disease  of  the 
heart,  medical  advice  will  of  course  have  been  obtained,  and 
very  probably  a  doctor  may  have  said  that  some  alcoholic  liquor 
is  essential.  There  are,  also,  several  different  forms  of  heart 
disease  which  require  altogether  different  treatment,  and  only  a 
physician  can  tell  the  difference,  or  appreciate  the  necessity  for 
the  particular  treatment  required.  But  it  may  be  pointed  out 
that  alcohol  is  utterly  unable  to  •  strengthen  '  the  heart,  or  give 
tone  to  the  blood-vessels,  or  to  the  system  at  large. 

"  The  alteration  in  the  pulse  due  to  alcohol  is  chiefly  owing- 
to  its  paralyzing  action  on  the  blood-vessels,  and  when  they  are 
too  contracted,  and  thereby  cause  the  weakened  heart  to  labor 
too  much,  the  alcohol  will  give  relief  for  the  time.  But  we 
have  in  nitrite  of  amyl,  a  fluid  which  will  act  more  quickly  and 
more  powerfully  ;  but  this  must  not  be  employed  without  med- 
ical direction.  It  is  very  useful  in  cases  of  angina  pectoris,  or 
breast  pang,  but  is  rarely  required  in  the  majority  of  cases  in 
which  the  valves  of  the  heart  are  diseased.  The  paralyzing: 
action  of  alcohol  is  not  generally  produced  by  less  than  half  a 
wine-glassful  of  brandy  or  whisky,  or  twice  that  quantity  of 
wine,  and  often  much  more  is  required.  The  relief  to  uneasy 
sensations  which  much  smaller  quantities  sometimes  produce  is 
due  to  their  ansesthetic  or  benumbing  action,  by  which  the 
nerves  of  the  patient  are  rendered  less  sensible,  although  the 
danger  is  by  no  means  diminished.  ***** 


1 82  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

"  The  only  sensible  way  to  avert  the  evil  consequences  of 
heart  disease  is  to  strengthen  the  heart,  and  that  is  to  be  done 
by  strengthening  the  body  generally.  The  amount  of  exercise, 
the  kind  of  baths,  etc.,  which  should  be  taken,  have  to  be  mod-  - 
ified  in  accordance  with  the  nature  of  the  case.  If  these  nat- 
ural health-giving  measures  cannot  be  employed  nothing  is  an 
effectual  substitute. 

"  Weak  ox  feeble  heart  is  a  common  complaint,  and  is  as 
ordinary  an  excuse  for  resorting  to  alcoholic  liquors  as  '  Tim- 
othy's stomach.'  If  there  is  no  organic  disease;  if  the  valves 
of  the  heart  are  healthy  and  act  properly,  all  anxiety  on  this 
point  may  be  entirely  banished.  The  slow  pulse,  the  feeble 
pulse,  the  cold  feet,  the  want  of  energy,  these  are  not  to  be  got 
rid  of'by  such  a  mere  temporary  agent  as  alcohol,  even  if  relief 
can  be  thus  obtained  from  day  to  day.  The  constant  applica- 
tion of  alcohol  to  the  tissues  of  the  body  alters  them  gradually 
by  its  chemical  action.  In  addition  to  this,  the  balance  of  the 
nervous  system  is  altered,  an  unnatural  condition  is  produced, 
and  the  unhappy  patient  becomes  more  liable  to  disease  and 
more  easily  succumbs  when  attacked. 

"  Many  of  these  ■  feeble  hearts  '  mean  too  little  exercise,  very 
often  also,  too  much  or  improper  food  and  drink. 

"  The  best  remedies  are  cold  sponging  (according  to  the 
season)  ;  avoidance  of  coddling ;  plain,  wholesome  food ;  ab- 
stinence from  tea,  hot  drinks  and  condiments ;  regular  out-of- 
doors  exercise  and  all  similar  true  tonic  measures." 

Dr.  Kellogg  says  : — 

"  Persons  subject  to  attacks  of  angina  pectoris  should  carry 
with  them  a  small  bottle  containing  a  sponge  saturated  with 
nitrite  of  amyl,  and  place  it  to  the  nose  when  necessary. 

"  Sympathetic  palpitation  may  be  relieved  by  bending  the 
head  downward,  allowing  the  arms  to  hang  down.  The  effect 
of   this   measure   is   increased   by   holding  the   breath  a   few 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  1 83 

seconds  while  bending  over.  Another  ready  means  of  relief  is 
to  press  strongly  upon  the  large  arteries  on  either  side  of  the 
neck. 

"  Palpitation  of  the  heart  is  often  mistaken  for  real  organic 
disease  of  the  organ.  *****  a  careful  regulation  of  the 
diet  is  in  most  cases  all  that  is  necessary  to  effect  a  cure." 

Dr.  Edmunds,  of  London,  was  asked  during  a 
medical  discussion  what  he  thought  of  the  use  of 
alcohol  in  heart  disease.  His  answer  is  embodied 
in  the  following  : — 

"  With  regard  to  the  use  of  brandy  in  cases  of  heart  disease, 
he  was  convinced  it  was  a  mistake  to  use  it  in  such  cases. 
There  were  many  forms  of  heart  disease,  but  the  most  common 
kind  arose  from  the  heart  being  too  fat.  Excess  of  fat  debili- 
tated the  heart  and  injured  its  working,  just  as  a  piece  of  wax 
attached  to  a  tuning  fork  would  impair  its  usefulness.  In  such 
cases  he  dieted  his  patients  in  order  to  reduce  their  weight. 
Every  dose  of  brandy  taken  for  heart  disease  increased  the 
evil.  The  moment  brandy  was  taken  for  heart  disease,  or  any 
other  chronic  complaint  of  a  similar  kind,  the  disease  was 
increased.  If  doctors  recommended  alcohol  to  their  patients, 
he  had  been  asked  what  abstainers  should  do.  In  such  cases, 
as  had  been  suggested,  he  thought  the  patients  might  ask  what 
the  alcohol  was  to  do  for  them,  and  if  the  reply  was  not 
satisfactory,  they  should  get  another  doctor." 

Dr.  T.  D.  Crothers,  of  Hartford,  Conn.,  has  de- 
duced some  valuable  facts  from  his  experiments 
with  the  sphygmograph,  upon  the  action  of  the 
heart.  He  has  found  by  repeated  experiments  that 
while  alcohol  apparently  increases  the  force  and 
volume  of  the  heart's  action,  the  irregular  tracings 
of  the  sphygmograph  show  that  the  real  vital  force 


1 84  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

is   diminished,  and  hence  its  apparent  stimulating 
power  is  deceptive. 

Dr.  C.  W.  Chapman,  of  the  National  Hospital  for 
Diseases  of  the  Heart,  wrote  in  the  Lancet : — 

"  The  very  thing  (alcohol)  which  they  supposed  had  kept 
their  heart  going  was  responsible  for  many  of  its  difficulties." 

Of  cases  of  palpitation  and  irregularity  caused  by 
business  anxieties  or  indigestion,  he  said  : — 
"  To  give  alcohol  is  only  to  add  fuel  to  the  fire." 

Heart  Failure  : — "  In  cases  of  cardiac  weakness,  the 
thing  needed  is  not  simply  an  increased  rate  of  movement  of 
the  heart,  or  an  increased  volume  of  the  pulse,  but  an  increased 
movement  of  the  blood  current  throughout  the  entire  system. 
In  the  application  of  any  agent  for  the  purpose  of  affording 
relief  in  a  condition  of  this  kind,  the  peripheral  heart  as  well  as 
the  central  organ  must  be  taken  into  consideration.  In  fact, 
the  whole  circulatory  system  must  be  regarded  as  one.  The 
heart  and  the  arteries  are  composed  of  essentially  the  same 
kind  of  tissue,  and  have  practically  the  same  functions.  The 
arteries  as  well  as  the  heart  are  capable  of  contracting. 

"  Both  the  heart  and  the  arteries  are  controlled  by  excitory 
and  inhibitory  nerves.  These  two  classes  of  nerves  are  kindred 
in  structure  and  in  origin,  the  vagus  and  the  vasodilators  being 
medullated,  while  the  accelerators  of  the  heart  and  the  vaso- 
constrictors of  the  arteries  are  non-medullated  and  pass 
through  the  sympathetic  ganglia  on  the  way  to  their  distribu- 
tion. 

"  Winternitz  and  other  therapeutists  have  frequently  called 
attention  to  the  value  of  cold  as  a  cardiac  stimulant  or  tonic. 
The  tonic  effect  of  this  agent  is  greater  than  that  of  any 
medicinal  agent  which  can  be  administered.  The  cold  com- 
press  applied   over  the   cardiac  area  of  the  chest  may  well 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  185 

replace  alcohol  as  a  heart  tonic.  The  thing  necessary  to 
encourage  the  heart's  action  is  not  merely  relaxation  of  the 
peripheral  vessels,  but,  as  Winternitz  has  shown,  increased 
activity  of  the  peripheral  circulation  in  the  skin,  muscles  and 
elsewhere.  Alcohol  paralyzes  the  vasoconstrictors,  and  so 
dilates  the  small  vessels  and  lessens  the  resistance  of  the  heart 
action  ;  but  at  the  same  time  it  lessens  the  activity  of  the 
nerve  centres  which  control  the  heart,  diminishes  the  power  of 
the  heart  muscle,  and  lessens  that  rhythmical  activity  of  the 
small  vessels  whereby  the  circulation  is  so  efficiently  aided  at 
that  portion  of  the  blood  circuit  most  remote  from  the  heart. 
A  continuous  cold  application  applied  to  that  portion  of  the 
chest  overlying  the  heart  stimulates  the  nerves  controlling  the 
walls  of  the  vessels,  and  at  the  same  time  energizes  the  corre- 
sponding cardiac  nerves.  It  is  wise  to  remember  that  the 
vasoconstrictor  nerves  are  one  in  kind  with  the  excitor  nerves 
of  the  heart,  while  the  vasodilators  are  in  like  manner  associ- 
ated with  the  vagus.  With  this  in  mind,  it  is  clear  that  while 
alcohol  paralyzes  the  vasoconstrictors,  it  at  the  same  time 
weakens  the  nerves  which  initiate  and  maintain  the  activity  of 
the  heart;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  cold  excites  to  activity 
those  nerves  which  produce  the  opposite  effect. 

"  The  apparent  increase  of  strength  which  follows  the  ad- 
ministration of  alcohol  in  cases  of  cardiac  weakness  is  delusive. 
There  is  increased  volume  of  the  pulse  for  the  reason  that  the 
small  arteries  and  capillaries  are  dilated,  but  this  apparent  im- 
provement in  cardiac  action  is  very  evanescent.  This  is  a 
natural  result  of  the  fact  that  while  the  heart  is  relieved  mo- 
mentarily by  sudden  dilation  of  the  peripheral  vessels,  the  ac- 
cumulation of  the  blood  in  the  venous  system,  through  the  loss 
of  the  normal  activity  of  the  peripheral  heart,  gradually  raises 
the  resistance  by  increasing  the  amount  of  blood  which  has  to 
be  pushed  along  in  the  venous  system.  This  loss  of  the  action 
of  the  peripheral  heart  more  than  counterbalances  the  tempo- 
rary relief  secured  by  the  paralysis  of  the  vasoconstrictors. 


1 86  ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE. 

"  Thermic  applications,  general  and  local,  may  safely  be  af- 
firmed to  be  the  true  physiological  heart  tonic.  In  the  employ- 
ment of  the  cold  pericardial  compress  as  a  heart  tonic,  the 
application  should  generally  be  continued  not  more  than  half 
an  hour  at  a  time,  and  its  use  may  be  alternated  with  general 
cold  applications  to  the  surface.  A  cold  towel  rub,  or  the  cold 
trunk  pack  is  the  best  form  for  application  if  the  patient  is  very 
feeble. 

"  The  cold  towel  rub  is  applied  thus  :  wring  a  towel  as  dry 
as  possible  out  of  very  cold  water,  and  spread  it  quickly  and 
evenly  over  the  surface ;  rub  vigorously  outside  until  the  skin 
begins  to  feel  warm  ;  then  remove,  dry  the  moistened  surface, 
rub  until  it  glows,  and  make  the  same  application  to  another 
part ;  and  so  on  until  the  whole  surface  of  the  body  has  been 
gone  over.     The  procedure  should  be  rapid  and  vigorous. 

"  If  the  cold  trunk  pack  is  employed,  a  sheet  of  not  more 
than  one  thickness  should  be  wrung  as  dry  as  possible  out  of 
very  cold  water,  and  wrapped  quickly  about  the  body,  after 
first  dipping  the  hands  in  water,  and  rubbing  the  trunk  vigor- 
ously. In  cases  of  extreme  cardiac  weakness,  very  cold  and 
very  hot  applications  may  be  alternately  applied  over  the  region 
of  the  heart.  The  duration  of  the  hot  and  cold  applications 
should  be  about  fifteen  seconds  each. 

"  Any  one  who  has  ever  witnessed  the  marvelous  effects  of 
applications  of  this  sort  in  reviving  a  flagging  heart  will  never 
doubt  their  efficacy,  and  will  have  no  occasion  to  resort  to 
alcohol,  or  any  other  intoxicant,  to  stimulate  a  flagging  heart. 
The  writer  has  employed  these  measures  for  stimulating  the 
heart  for  more  than  twenty  years,  and  might  cite  hundreds 
of  instances  in  which  their  efficiency  has  been  demonstrated. 
They  are  applicable  not  only  to  the  cardiac  depression  en- 
countered in  the  adynamic  stage  of  typhoid  and  other  fevers, 
but  in  cases  of  heart  failure  from  hemorrhage,  of  surgical 
shock,   collapse  under  chloroform  or   ether,  opium  poisoning, 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  l8/ 

coal  gas   asphyxia,   drowning,   etc."— Dr.   J.   H.   Kellogg,   in 
Bulletin  of  the  A.  M.  T.  A.,  Jan.,  1899. 

Dr.  N.  S.  Davis  tells  of  a  case  of  threatened  col- 
lapse where  he  was  called  in  consultation.  Patient 
was  in  a  small,  unventilated  room. 

"  It  was  easy  to  see  that  what  she  needed  was  fresh  air 
in  her  lungs.  Instead  of  giving  alcohol  in  any  form  she 
was  moved  into  a  large,  well-ventilated  room.  All  symp- 
toms of  *  heart  failure '  disappeared.  Had  she  begun  to  take 
whisky  or  brandy,  physician  and  friends  would  have  attributed 
her  recovery  to  that,  when  in  fact  it  would  have  retarded  re- 
covery by  hindering  oxygenation  of  the  blood." 

"  It  would  also  be  a  very  great  mistake  to  suppose  that  when 
reaction  follows  collapse,  in  cases  in  which  alcohol  has  been 
given,  this  result  is  always  due  to  the  alcohol.  I  have  seen  so 
many  cases  of  severe  collapse  recover  without  alcohol  that  I 
cannot  but  be  skeptical  as  to  its  necessity,  and  even  as  to  its 
value.  I  was  much  struck  many  years  ago  by  a  case  of  post 
partum  hemorrhage  which  was  so  severe  that  convulsions  set 
in.  I  should  then  have  given  brandy  if  there  had  been  any  to 
give,  but  there  was  none  in  the  house  and  none  to  be  got.  I 
administered  teaspoonfuls  of  hot  water  and  the  patient  revived 
and  recovered  ;  next  day,  except  for  anaemia,  she  was  as  well 
as  ever,  with  no  reactionary  fever  or  other  disturbance,  as  would 
almost  certainly  have  been  the  case  if  brandy  had  been  given. 

"  In  collapse  from  hemorrhage,  we  have  learned  the  value  of 
injections  of  warm  saline  water,  either  into  the  veins,  the  skin 
or  the  rectum,  and  the  same  treatment  is  available  in  other 
cases  of  collapse  with  contracted  vessels. 

"  Another  measure  which  has  proved  most  efficacious  is  the 
inhalation  of  oxygen  gas.  This  is  especially  useful  in  cases  in 
which  alcohol  is  decidedly  injurious,  namely,  those  in  which 
there   is  increasing   congestion  of   the  lungs,  which  the  heart, 


188  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

though  doing  its  utmost,  is  unable  to  overcome.  Alcohol  only- 
increases  the  congestion,  and  the  heart  is  already  over-exerted 
and  nearly  exhausted.  The  effect  of  the  oxygen  is  apparent  in 
a  few  seconds,  and  cases  have  been  rescued  in  which  death  ap- 
peared to  be  inevitable  and  imminent." — Dr.  Ridge. 

Heart  Stimulants  :— "  The  advantage  of  beef  extract 
over  alcohol  as  a  stimulant  was  demonstrated  on  a  large  scale 
in  the  Ashantee  war." — Dr.  Ridge,  London. 

For  those  who  must  have  a  drug ;  aqua  ammonia,. 
8  drops  to  y2  cup  of  hot  water,  or  2Q  grains  carbon- 
ate ammonia  to  Y*  cup  water.  Hot  water  alone  is  a 
useful  stimulant ;  also  water,  hot  or  cold,  with  a  few 
grains  of  Cayenne  pepper  added.  The  latter  is 
good,  not  only  to  start  the  heart's  action  in  collapse, 
but  also  to  relieve  violent  pain.  Hot  milk  is  a  most 
valuable  stimulant.  Many  persons  to  whom  hot 
milk  has  been  given  during  the  extreme  weakness. 
of  acute  disease  have  testified  afterward  to  its  good 
effects  in  comparison  with  the  wine  formerly  admin- 
istered. The  wine  caused  an  after-feeling  of  chilli- 
ness and  weakness,  while  the  milk  gave  warmth  and 
added  strength. 

Insomnia  or  Sleeplessness  : — *  A  person  who  suffers 
from  sleeplessness  should  avoid  the  use  of  tea  and  coffee, 
tobacco,  alcoholic  liquors  and  all  other  disturbers  of  the  ner- 
vous system.  Eating  immediately  before  retiring  has  been  rec- 
ommended, but  the  ultimate  result  may  be  an  aggravation  of 
the  difficulty  instead  of  relief.  If  a  person  suffers  from  'all 
gone  feelings '  so  that  he  cannot  sleep,  he  should  take  a  few 
sips  of  cold  water  or  a  glass  of  lemonade.  As  complete  relief 
will  generally  be  obtained  as  from  eating,  and  the  stomach  will 
be  saved  work  when  it  should  be  resting.     A  warm  bath  just 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  1 89 

before  retiring,  a  wet-hand  rub,  a  cool  sponge  bath,  gentle 
rubbing  of  the  body  with  the  dry  hand,  a  moist  bandage  worn 
about  the  abdomen  during  the  night,  are  all  useful  measures. 
When  the  feet  are  cold,  they  should  be  thoroughly  warmed  by 
a  hot  foot  or  leg  bath,  and  thorough  rubbing.  When  the  head 
is  congested,  these  measures  should  be  supplemented  by  the 
application  of  cold  to  the  head,  as  the  cold  compress  or  the 
ice-cap." 

A  walk  in  the  evening,  or  gentle  calisthenics,  may- 
help  those  of  sedentary  habits.  Bicycle  riding  and 
horse-back  riding  in  the  evening  have  helped  many. 

The  practice  of  long  deep  breathing  will  often  put 
persons  to  sleep  when  all  other  devices  fail.  The 
lungs  should  be  filled  to  their  utmost  capacity,  and 
then  emptied  with  equal  slowness,  repeating  the 
respiration  about  ten  times  a  minute,  instead  of 
eighteen  or  twenty,  the  natural  rate.  Those  who 
fall  asleep  upon  first  going  to  bed,  and  after  a  few 
hours  awake,  and  are  unable  to  sleep  again,  may- 
find  relief  by  getting  out  of  bed,  and  rubbing  the 
surface  of  the  body  with  the  dry  hand.  Or  walk 
about  the  room  a  few  minutes,  exposing  the  skin  to 
.  the  air,  go  back  to  bed  and  try  the  deep  breathing. 

*  The  use  of  drugs  for  the  purpose  of  inducing  sleep  should 
be  avoided  as  much  as  possible.  Opium  is  especially  harmful. 
Sleep  obtained  by  the  use  of  opiates  is  not  a  substitute  for 
natural  sleep.  The  condition  is  one  of  insensibility,  but  not  of 
natural  refreshing  recuperation.  Three  or  four  hours  of  natural 
sleep  will  be  more  than  equivalent  to  double  that  amount  of 
sleep  obtained  by  the  use  of  narcotics.  When  a  person  once 
becomes  dependent  upon  drugs  of  any  kind  for  producing 
sleep,  it  is  almost  impossible  for  him  to  dispense  with  them. 


I90  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

It  is  often  dangerous  to  resort  to  their  temporary  use,  on. 
account  of  the  great  tendency  to  the  formation  of  the  habit  of 
continuous  use.  The  use  of  opiates  for  securing  sleep  is  one  of 
the  most  prolific  means  by  which  the  great  army  of  opium- 
eaters  is  annually  recruited.  Chloral,  bromide  of  potash, 
whisky  and  other  drugs  are  to  be  condemned  almost  as- 
strongly  as  opium." — Dr.  Kellogg. 

Dr.  Furer,  of  Heidelberg,  Germany,  in  a  paper 
before  the  International  Congress  against  alcohol^ 
held  in  Basle,  Switzerland,  in  Sept.,  1895,  said  :— 

"  The  sleep  from  alcohol  does  not  act  as  a  mental  tonic,  but 
leaves  the  mind  weaker  next  day." 

Some  noble  specimens  of  manhood  have  become 
wrecks  through  accepting  the  advice  to  try  "  whisky 
night-caps."  Edison  recommends  manual  labor, 
instead  of  going  to  rest,  for  aggravated  insomnia. 
He  says  sleep  will  soon  come  naturally. 

La  Grippe: — "  Alcohol  has  no  place  in  the  treatment  of  la 
grippe  ;  on  the  contrary  it  is  because  of  the  too  frequent  use 
of  this,  and  other  narcotics,  that  epidemics  make  such  fearful 
headway  in  our  land,  and  such  must  be  the  rule  until  the 
people  study  the  laws  of  health  and  obey  them.  Profuse 
sweating,  followed  by  a  careful  bathing  of  the  body  in  tepid 
water,  gradually  cooling  it  to  a  normal  temperature,  and  avoid- 
ing unnecessary  exposure,  will  relieve.  The  patient  should 
sleep  in  pure  air  and  eat  as  little  as  possible,  and  that  only 
when  hungry.  *****  Quinine  is  essentially  a  nerve  poison, 
and  capable  of  producing  a  profound  disturbance  of  the  nervous 
centres.  A  drug  of  such  potency  for  evil  should  be  employed 
with  the  greatest  care,  and  never  when  a  milder  agency  will 
secure  the  result.  Exceedingly  pernicious  is  the  habit  of  dosing 
children  with  this  drug." — Dr.  Charles  H.  Shepard,  Brook- 
lyn, N.  Y. 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  I9I 

"  A  late  surgeon  of  the  gold  coast  of  Africa  wrote  the  follow- 
ing to  the  London  Lancet  of  Jan.  2,  1890  :  'Some  of  the  worst 
cases  of  this  disease,  the  grippe,  remind  me  of  an  epidemic  I 
saw  among  the  natives  of  the  swamps  of  the  Niger.  ***** 
Irrespective  of  disinfectants  and  inhalations  there  is  a  simple, 
effective  and  ready  remedy,  the  juice  of  oranges  in  large  quanti- 
ties, not  of  two  or  three,  but  of  dozens.  The  first  unpleasant 
symptoms  disappear,  and  the  acid  citrate  of  potash  of  the  juice, 
by  a'simple  chemic  action  decreases  the  amount  of  fibrine  in  the 
blood  to  an  extent  which  prevents  the  development  of  pneu- 
monia.' " 

The  Syracuse  (N.  Y.)  Post-Standard  contained 
the  following  during  the  epidemic  of  1899  : — 

"  Dr.  George  D.  Whedon  declared  to  a  Post- Standard reporter 
yesterday  that  there  is  practically  no  subsiding  of  the  grippe 
in  this  city.  Dr.  Whedon  said  that  the  weather  conditions 
have  little,  if  anything,  to  do  with  the  disease,  and  that  it  is  im- 
possible to  define  the  conditions  which  produce  it.  It  is 
some  morbific  agency,  the  influence  of  which,  Dr,  Whedon 
said,  is  exerted  upon  the  pneumogastric  nerve. 

"  Dr.  Whedon  was  emphatic  in  denouncing  treatment  by 
means  of  alcoholic  stimulants,  and  coal  tar  derivatives.  In  dis- 
cussing the  subject  at  some  length  he  said  : — 

'  I  find  that  infants  and  young  children  are  practically 
exempt  from  the  disease,  and  the  liability  increases  with  age.  In 
my  own  experience,  which  has  since  1889  amounted  to  an 
aggregate  °f  3>°°°  cases,  alcoholic  stimulants  have  appeared  to 
be  usually  of  little  or  no  value ;  their  usual  stimulating  effect 
does  not  seem  to  be  realized  in  this  condition.  Unless  mala- 
rial complications  exist  quinine  appears  of  no  benefit,  and  then 
should  not  be  used  in  larger  than  two  grain  doses.  Large 
doses  depress  the  weakened  heart,  and  in  all  cases  increase  the 
terrible  confusion  and  headache,  constantly  present  in  severe 
cases. 


I92  ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE. 

'  From  the  views  I  entertain  of  its  pathology,  and  from  the 
terrible  fatality  which  has  attended  the  extensive  use  of  the 
coal  tar  derivatives  in  treatment  of  la  grippe,  I  argue  that  the 
manner  in  which  they  have  been  prescribed  in  the  beginning  of 
the  disease,  to  reduce  fever,  and  relieve  the  often  intense  suffer- 
ing, lowers  the  heart's  action,  which  is  already  sufficiently  inca- 
pacitated by  the  toxic  agent  producing  the  disease. 

■  The  intention  is  usually  to  stimulate  later,  but  later  is  in 
many  cases  unfortunately  too  late.  The  heart  being  over- 
whelmed by  the  poison,  and  by  the  added  depression  of  all  coal 
tar  preparations,  cannot  keep  up  the  pulmonary  circulation. 
The  swelling  of  the  lungs  increases,  and  the  result  is  fatal. 

1 1  am  aware  of  the  weight  of  authority  for  their  administration 
and  of  the  relief  they  afford,  but  am  just  as  wrell  assured  that 
were  their  use  discontinued,  the  greatly  increased  death-rate  from 
la  grippe  would  cease  to  appear. 

'  These  coal  tar  remedies  are  being  used  everywhere,  and 
the  medical  journals  recommend  them  despite  the  fatal  results. 
They  are  being  used  every  hour  in  the  day  in  Syracuse,  and,  as 
a  result,  are  knocking  out  good  people.  Among  the  most  popular 
coal  tar  derivatives  I  might  mention  anti-kamnia,  salol-phenace- 
tine,  anti-pyrine  and  salicylate  of  soda. 

'  Prognosis  is  favorable  at  all  ages.  Patients  should  be  kept 
warm,  and  perfectly  quiet  in  bed,  and  supplied  with  such  nutri- 
tious and  easily  digested  food,  at  frequent  intervals,  as  the  par- 
tially paralyzed  stomach  can  take  care  of.  All  nourishment 
must  be  fluid  and  warm  rather  than  cold.'  " 

The  Journal  of Inebriety  for  April,  1889,  says: — 

"  The  present  epidemic  of  influenza  has  proved  to  be  very 
fatal  in  cases  of  moderate  and  excessive  alcoholic  drinkers. 

u  Pneumonia  is  the  most  common  sequel,  breaking  out  sud- 
denly, and  terminating  fatally  in  a  few  days.  Heart  failure 
and  profound  exhaustion,  is  another  fatal  termination.    One  case 


ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE.  193 

was  reported  to  me  of  an  inebriate,  who,  after  a  full  outbreak 
of  all  the  usual  symptoms,  drank  freely  of  whisky  and  became 
stupid  and  died.  It  was  uncertain  whether  cerebral  hemorrhage 
had  taken  place,  or  the  narcotism  of  the  alcohol  had  combined 
with  the  disease  and  caused  death. 

"  A  physician  appeared  to  have  unusual  fatality  in  the  cases 
of  this  class  under  his  care. 

"  It  was  found  that  he  gave  some  form  of  alcohol  freely,  on 
the  old  theory  of  stimulation.  Another  physician  gave  all 
drinking  cases  with  this  disease  alcohol,  on  the  same  theory, 
and  had  equally  fatal  results.  It  has  been  asserted  that  alcohol, 
as  an  antiseptic,  was  useful  in  these  bacterial  epidemics,  but  its 
use  has  been  followed  by  greater  depression,  and  many  new 
and  complex  symptoms.  The  frequent  half  domestic  and 
professional  remedy,  hot  rum  and  whisky,  has  been  followed 
by  more  serious  symptoms,  and  a  protracted  convalescence. 
Many  facts  have  been  reported  showing  the  danger  of  alcohol 
as  a  remedy,  also  the  fatality  in  cases  of  inebriates  who  were 
affected  with  this  disease. 

"  The  first  most  common  symptom  seems  to  be  heart  exhaus- 
tion and  feebleness,  then  from  the  catarrhal  and  bronchial  irri- 
tation, pneumonia  often  follows." 

The  vapor  or  Turkish  bath  is  the  best  means  of 
"  breaking  up  "  this  disease,  together  with  hot 
lemonade  and  rest  in  bed  for  a  day  or  two.  The 
inhalation  of  hot  steam  should  be  tried  when  there 
is  much  bronchial  irritation. 

Life-Saving  Stations,  The  Use  of  Alcohol  In: — 
"  There  is  no  possible  useful  place  for  alcoholic  liquors  in  con- 
nection with  a  life-saving  station.  Applied  externally  the  rapid 
evaporation  of  alcohol  reduces  the  temperature  ;  taken  internally 
it  diminishes  the  efficiency  of  both  respiration  and  circulation, 
and  by  increasing  congestion  of  the  kidneys  it  directly  increases 


194  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

the  danger  of  secondary  bad  effects  from  exposures  of  any  kind. 
To  restore  warmth  and  circulation  to  the  surface,  light,  rapid 
friction  and  the  wrapping  with  dry  flannel  is  the  safest,  cheap- 
est and  most  efficient,  while  free  breathing  of  fresh  air,  and  fre- 
quent small  doses  of  milk,  beef-tea,  ordinary  tea  or  coffee,  or 
even  simple  water,  will  afford  the  greatest  amount  of  strength 
and  endurance,  and  leave  the  least  secondary  bad  consequences. 
It  is  just  as  easy  to  keep  at"  hand  a  jug  or  flask  of  any  one  of 
the  articles  named  as  it  is  to  keep  a  flask  of  whisky  or  brandy. 
There  is  no  need  of  keeping  them  hot,  as  they  act  well  at  any 
temperature  at  which  they  can  be  drunk."— Dr.  N.  S.  Davis, 
Chicago. 

Measles  : — "  In  mild  cases,  very  little  treatment  is  required, 
except  such  as  is  necessary  to  make  the  patient  comfortable. 
Good  nursing  is  much  more  important  than  medical  attendance. 
If  the  eruption  is  slow  in  making  its  appearance,  or  is  repelled 
after  having  appeared,  the  patient  should  be  given  a  warm 
blanket  pack. 

"  The  old-fashioned  plan  of  keeping  the  patient  smothered 
beneath  heavy  blankets,  and  constantly  in  a  state  of  perspira- 
tion is  wholly  unnecessary.  The  irritation  of  the  skin,  as  well 
as  the  sensitiveness  to  cold,  may  be  relieved  by  rubbing  the 
skin  gently  two  or  three  times  a  dav  with  vaseline  or  sweet  oil. 
There  is  no  danger  from  the  application  of  cold  water  to  the 
surface  except  in  the  last  stages  of  the  disease,  after  the  erup- 
tion has  disappeared. 

"  The  patient  should  be  allowed  cooling  drinks  as  much  as  de- 
sired. During  the  disease  a  simple  but  nutritious  diet  should  be 
allowed,  but  stimulants  of  all  ki?ids  should  be  prohibited." 

"  It  is  wholly  unnecessary,  and  dangerous  as  well,  to  give 
whisky  to  bring  out  the  eruption."— Dr.  I.  N.  Quimby,  Jersey 
City. 

"  Any  hot  drink,  such  as  ginger  tea  or  hot  lemonade,  may- 
be used  to  hasten  the  eruption,  if  delayed." 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  19$ 

Malaria  : — Observers  of  this  disease  in  such  re- 
gions as  the  gold  coast  of  Africa  have  noted  the 
fact  that  malarial  attacks  are  generally  preceded  by 
impaired  digestion.  The  disease  is  said  to  be  due 
to  animal  parasites.  These  parasites  are  supposed 
to  generate  in  the  soil  of  certain  regions,  and  thence, 
through  the  drinking  water,  or  otherwise,  find  en- 
trance to  the  human  body. 

"A  healthy  stomach  is  able  to  destroy. germs  of  all  sorts, 
hence  the  best  protection  from  malaria  is  the  boiling  of  all 
drinking  water,  and  the  maintenance  of  sound  digestion  and 
purity  of  blood  by  an  aseptic  dietary." 

Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg  says  in  The  Voice  : — 

"  It  must  be  understood,  however,  that  fruit  in  malarial  re- 
gions, especially  watermelons,  may  be  thickly  covered  with 
malarial  parasites  and  the  parasites  may  sometimes  find  en- 
trance to  the  fruit  when  it  becomes  over-ripe,  so  that  the  skin 
is  broken.  It  is  evident,  then,  that  care  must  be  taken  to  dis- 
infect such  fruit  by  thorough  washing,  or  by  dipping  in  hot 
water,  which  is  the  safer  plan.  The  same  remark  applies  to 
cucumbers,  lettuce,  celery,  cabbage  and  other  green  vegetables 
which  are  commonly  served  without  cooking.  Not  only  ma- 
larial parasites  but  small  insects  of  various  kinds  are  often 
found  clinging  to  such  food  substances,  their  development  being 
encouraged  by  the  free  use  of  top  dressing  on  the  soil,  a  process 
common  with  market  gardeners. 

"  The  treatment  of  malarial  disease  is  too  large  and  intricate 
a  subject  for  proper  treatment  in  these  columns.  We  will  say- 
briefly,  however,  at  the  risk  of  being  considered  very  unorthodox, 
that  the  majority  of  cases  of  malarial  poisoning  can  be  cured 
without  the  use  of  drugs  of  any  sort.  In  fact,  in  the  most 
obstinate  cases   of  chronic   malarial  poisoning,  drugs   are   of 


I96  ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE. 

almost  no  use  whatever.  Quinine,  however,  is  certainly  of 
value  as  a  curative  agent  in  these  cases,  either  in  destroying 
the  parasites,  or  in  preventing  their  development ;  but  as  it  does 
not  remove  the  cause,  its  curative  effect  is  likely  to  be  very 
transient.  The  practice  of  habitually  taking  quinine  as  a  pre- 
ventive of  malarial  disease  is  a  most  injurious  one,  as  quinine 
is  itself  a  non-usable  substance  in  the  system,  and  therefore 
must  be  looked  upon  as  a  mild  poison,  to  be  dealt  with  by  the 
liver  and  kidneys  the  same  as  other  poisons.  By  habitual  use 
it  may  itself  become  a  cause  of  disease.  One  or  two  periodical 
doses  of  quinine  often  prove  of  great  service  in  interrupting  the 
paroxysms  of  an  intermittent  fever,  but  other  treatment  must 
also  be  employed  to  develop  the  bodily  resistance,  and  fortify  the 
system  against  disease.  The  morning  cold  bath,  followed  by 
vigorous  rubbing,  is  a  most  excellent  measure  for  this  purpose, 
but  the  old-fashioned  German  wet-sheet  pack  is  one  of  the  best 
remedies  known.  The  paroxysm  itself  can  generally  be 
avoided  by  means  of  the  dry  pack,  begun  before  the  chill 
makes  its  appearance ;  but  this  requires  the  services  of  an  ex- 
pert nurse.  In  not  a  few  cases  it  is  wise  for  a  person  who 
suffers  frequently  from  malarial  disease  to  seek  a  change  of 
climate  to  some  non-malarial  region." 

"  Col.  T.  W.  Higginson  of  the  First  South  Carolina  Volunteers, 
in  1862,  said  of  Dr.  Seth  Rogers,  an  eminent  Southern  physician, 
who  was  surgeon  of  the  regiment :  '  Fortunately  for  us,  he 
was  one  of  that  minority  of  army  surgeons  who  did  not  believe 
in  whisky,  so  that  we  never  had  it  issued  in  the  regiment  while 
he  was  with  us,  and  got  on  better,  in  a  highly  malarial  district, 
than  those  regiments  which  used  it.'  " 

Maternity  : — Dr.  Ridge  says  :— "  It  is  one  of  the  greatest 
mistakes  to  make  use  of  alcoholic  beverages  to  '  keep  up  the 
strength  '  during  labor.  It  is,  of  course,  impossible  to  predict 
at  the  commencement  how  long  the  labor  will  last  ;  if  then 
brandy,  or  other  similar  drink,  is  resorted  to  early,  it  acts  most 
injuriously.     The  desire  for  food  is  often  entirely  removed  ;  the 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  1 97 

demand  of  the  system  being  therefore  unperceived,  and  so  not 
supplied,  a  state  of  weakness  and  prostration  is  in  time  pro- 
duced, if  the  labor  should  be  protracted,  which  may  be  really 
serious.  The  nervous  system  becomes  exhausted  by  the  re- 
peated action  of  the  alcohol.  If  a  fatal  result  is  not  occasioned, 
yet  the  prostration  of  body  and  mind  after  delivery  is  aggra- 
vated, and  convalescence  thereby  retarded.  Alcoholic  drinks 
produce  paralysis  and  congestion  of  the  blood-vessels,  and  in 
this  way  largely  increase  the  liability  to  flooding  after  the  labor 
is  over.  Alcohol  also  increases  the  liability  to  a  feverish 
condition. 

"  It  is  necessary  to  take  small  quantities  of  plain,  nourishing: 
food  at  regular  intervals,  and  nothing  is  of  greater  value  than 
well-cooked  oatmeal;  other  farinaceous  food  may  be  substi- 
tuted, if  preferred.  If  there  is  much  prostration,  meat  extracts 
or  beef  tea  are  of  great  value.  Tea  tends  to  produce  flatulence 
and  to  prevent  sleep. 

"  After  the  labor  is  over,  the  best  restorative  is  a  cup  of  hot 
beef  tea  or  an  egg  beaten  up  in  warm  milk  or  a  cup  of  warm 
gruel.  Rest,  and  absence  of  excitement  and  worry  are  es- 
sential and  alcohol  is  specially  injurious." 

Menstruation,  Painful: — Young  girls  often 
resort  to  the  use  of  brandy  during  the  monthly 
period,  and  parents  ask  anxiously,  "  What  can  they 
use  instead  of  the  brandy  ?  " 

The  very  best  thing  that  can  be  done  is  to  go  to 
bed,  wrapped  in  flannels,  with  a  hot-water  bottle  or1 
other  hot  application  to  the  abdomen,  and  to  the 
feet.     Take  hot  ginger  tea,  or  pepper  tea. 

A  warm  hip-bath  taken  at  the  beginning  may  give 
relief,  or  a  large  hot  enema  retained  for  half  an  hour 
or  so.     Rest  is  necessary. 


I98  ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE. 

For  those  who  must  go  to  work,  Dr.  Ridge 
recommends  five  drops  of  oil  of  juniper,  to  be 
taken  on  sugar. 

Neuralgia  : — "  The  principal  cause  of  neuralgia  is  defective 
nutrition  of  the  nerves.  Disorders  of  digestion  are  very  often 
accompanied  by  neuralgia  in  various  parts  of  the  body.  It 
may  also  result  from  taking  cold,  from  loss  of  sleep,  from  dis- 
sipation, and  also  from  the  use  of  tobacco,  alcohol,  tea  and 
coffee. 

"  The  patient's  general  health  must  be  improved  by  a  whole- 
some, simple  diet,  and  the  employment  of  tonic  baths,  as  a 
daily  sponge  bath,  and  massage  in  feeble  cases.  Sun-baths 
and  exercise  in  the  open  air  are  of  first  importance.  Ordinary 
neuralgia  may  almost  always  be  relieved  by  either  moist  or  dry 
heat.  In  some  cases,  cold  applications  give  more  relief  than 
hot.  As  a  rule,  abnormal  heat  requires  cold,  and  unnatural 
cold  requires  hot  applications.  In  many  cases  it  is  necessary 
to  give  the  patient  a  warm  bath  of  some  kind.  Electricity 
often  succeeds  when  all  other  remedies  fail. 

".  For  facial  neuralgia  apply  hot  fomentations,  together  with 
the  use  of  sitz  baths,  or  hot  foot  baths.  The  head  may  be 
steamed  by  holding  it  over  hot  water,  adding  pieces  of  hot 
brick  occasionally  to  keep  water  steaming,  head  being  covered. 

"  There  is  no  complaint,  perhaps,  in  the  treatment  of  which 
the  use  of  port  wine  will  be  more  strongly  urged  by  kind 
friends,  with  the  assurance  that  it  is  impossible  to  get  well 
without  it.  This  is  quite  untrue,  as  thousands  can  testify." — 
Dr.  Ridge. 

"  Avoid  opiates  of  all  sorts.  '  It  is  better  to  bear  the  ills  we 
have  than  fly  to  others  that  we  know  not  of.'  The  pangs  of 
neuralgia  are  as  nothing  to  endure  compared  with  the  sufferings 
of  an  opium  wreck.  Build  up  the  general  health,  and  the  neu- 
ralgia will  disappear." 


ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE.  I99 

Nausea. — "  A  feeling  of  sickness  is  not  uncommonly  due  to 
indigestion.  If  it  is  caused  by  rich  food  take  a  pinch  of  bicar- 
bonate of  soda  in  a  little  water,  or  a  teaspoonful  of  fluid  mag- 
nesia. The  acidity  of  the  food  will  thus  be  neutralized,  and 
this  course  is  far  preferable  to  benumbing  the  stomach  with 
brandy.  If  indigestion  is  the  cause,  it  is  often  salutary  to  miss 
one  or  two  meals,  so  as  to  allow  the  stomach  to  recover. 

"  When  due  to  pregnancy,  a  little  aerated  water,  or  soda 
water  is  useful ;  sometimes  a  small  wafer  or  a  crust,  eaten  be- 
fore rising  in  the  morning,  will  check  it.  An  early  morning 
Walk,  if  the  weather  is  pleasant,  is  helpful. 

"  The  moist  abdominal  bandage  is  a  very  excellent  means  of 
relieving  nausea  during  pregnancy.  It  should  be  worn  con- 
stantly for  a  week  or  two,  and  then  omitted  during  the  night. 
Daily  sitz  baths  are  also  of  great  advantage.  In  many  cases 
electricity  relieves  this  symptom  very  promptly.  In  very  urgent 
cases  in  which  the  vomiting  cannot  be  repressed,  and  the  life  of 
the  patient  is  threatened,  the  stomach  should  be  given  entire 
rest,  the  patient  being  nourished  by  nutritive  injections.  Fo- 
mentations over  the  stomach,  and  swallowing  small  bits  of  ice, 
are  sometimes  effective  when  other  measures  fail." — Dr.  J.  H. 
Kellogg. 

Outgrowing  the  Strength  : — "  There  is  sometimes  de- 
bility or  weakness  in  rapidly  growing  boys  and  girls  which  is 
attributed  to  this  cause.  It  is  popularly  supposed  that  port 
wine  or  beer,  is  the  great  remedy  ;  but  nothing  can  be  worse. 
It  is  true  that  gin  given  continuously  to  puppies  will  keep  them 
small,  but  no  one  would  advocate  the  amount  of  spirit  required 
in  proportion  by  a  lad  or  girl  to  produce  the  same  effect.  If 
the  growth  could  be  checked  by  chemicals  it  would  be  most 
injurious  to  do  so. 

"  In  the  treatment  of  such  cases  fresh  air  by  day  and  night 
is  essential ;  cold  sponging,  followed  by  friction  -with  a  rough 
towel,  and  exercise  are  desirable." 


200  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

PNEUMONIA. 

Dr.  Julius  Poheman  says  in  Medical  News  : 

"  The  effect  of  alcohol  upon  nearly  all  the  organs  of  the  body 
has  been  carefully  investigated.  But,  strange  to  say,  literature 
contains  only  a  few  straggling  hints  upon  the  action  of  alcohol 
on  the  pulmonary  tissue.  It  has  long  been  known  that  the 
abuse  of  alcohol  is  a  predisposing  cause  of  death  when  the 
drinker  is  attacked  with  pneumonia.  No  experimental  evidence 
has  been  published  of  the  action  of  alcohol  in  producing  patho- 
logical conditions  in  the  lungs.  In  order  to  determine  this 
action,  a  series  of  experiments  was  made  upon  dogs  in  the  win- 
ters of  1 890-1 891  and  1892-1893.  The  dogs  were  a  mixed  lot 
of  mongrels  gathered  in  by  the  city  dog  catchers.  They  varied 
in  weight  from  fifteen  to  twenty-five  pounds,  and  were  appar- 
ently in  good  health.  In  all,  thirty  animals  were  experimented 
on. 

"  The  experiments  were  performed  as  follows  : — A  carefully 
etherized  animal  had  injected  into  his  trachea  just  below  the 
larynx  a  quantity  of  commercial  alcohol  varying  from  one  dram 
to  one  ounce  in  amount.  The  effects  of  equal  amounts  of  alcohol 
upon  animals  of  the  same  weight  varies  greatly.  Two  dogs, 
weighing  twenty-five  pounds  each,  were  injected  with  two 
drams  of  alcohol.  One  died  in  one  hour,  and  the  other  in  six 
hours  after  the  injection.  Four  other  dogs,  two  weighing 
twenty-four  pounds  each,  another  eighteen  pounds,  and  the 
fourth  fifteen  pounds,  were  all  injected  with  the  same  amount, 
two  drams.  All  four  survived,  and  were  as  well  as  usual  in 
four  weeks.  Another  dog  of  eighteen  pounds  died  five  minutes 
after  an  injection  of  two  drams,  while  another  of  fifteen  pounds 
took  one  ounce  and  recovered. 

"  The  symptoms  in  the  dogs  were  all  alike,  dyspnea,  increas- 
ing as  the  inflammation  increased,  until  the  accessory  muscles 
of  respiration  were  called  into  play.  The  stethoscope  showed 
that  air  had  great  difficulty  in  entering  the  bronchi  and  air 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  201 

vesicles,  and  showed  also  the  tumultuous  beating  of  the  heart  in 
pumping  blood  through  the  lung.  It  was  impossible  to  take  the 
temperatures.  Post-mortem  examinations  showed  the  lungs 
dark,  congested  and  solid  in  some  places.  The  air  passages 
were  rilled  with  frothy,  bloody  mucus,  even  in  the  dog  that  died 
in  five  minutes.  On  section,  the  lungs  were  dark,  congested, 
and  full  of  bloody  mucus.  This  shows  how  acutely  sensitive 
the  respiratory  passages  are  to  the  action  of  alcohol.  On  mi- 
croscopic examination  of  the  lungs,  the  air  tubes  and  vesicles 
wTere  found  filled  with  immense  numbers  of  red  and  white  cor- 
puscles and  much  mucus.  The  same  picture  was  presented  as 
in  a  slide  from  the  lungs  of  a  broncho-pneumonic  child. 

"  The  striking  similarity  between  the  two  is  enough  to  prove 
that  the  pathological  condition  is  the  same,  and  that  alcohol 
has  produced  a  lesion  very  closely  resembling,  if  not  absolutely 
like,  that  of  broncho-pneumonia  in  the  human  subject.  This 
to  some  extent  explains  why  drunkards  attacked  by  pneumonia 
succumb  more  readily  than  the  temperate.  The  sensitive  lung 
tissue  is  enveloped  in  alcohol — flowing  through  the  capillaries 
of  the  lung  on  one  side,  and  exhaled,  filling  the  air  vesicles  and 
tubes  on  the  other.  The  condition  must  create  a  state  of  semi- 
engorgement  or  of  mild  inflammation,  similar  to  the  drunkard's 
red  nose,  or  his  engorged  gastric  mucous  membrane.  Such  a 
state  will  reduce  the  vitality  of  the  pulmonary  tissue,  and  its 
power  of  resistance  to  external  influences.  Add  to  this  an  in- 
flammation such  as  a  pneumonia,  and  the  lungs  find  themselves 
unable  to  stand  the  pressure." 

As  previous  chapters  contain  much  showing  the 
reasons  why  alcohol  is  dangerous  in  pneumonia, 
space  need  not  be  taken  here  to  do  more  than  in- 
dicate briefly  some  points  of  non-alcoholic  treat- 
ment. 

Pneumonia  is  generally  supposed  to  result  from  a 


202  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

cold ;  it  is  ushered  in  by  the  symptoms  of  a  chill, 
followed  by  fever,  headache,  shortness  of  breath, 
pain  in  chest,  etc.  It  sometimes  occurs  as  a  com- 
plication of  typhoid  fever  and  other  acute  diseases. 
"  It  is  not  a  very  fatal  disease  in  young  and  healthy  subjects, 
but  in  weak  children,  old  persons  and  habitual  drinkers,  it  is  a 
very  fatal  malady." 

Nature  Cure  recommends  a  vapor  bath  immedi- 
ately upon  the  appearance  of  the  first  symptoms, 
together  with  copious  drinking  of  hot  lemonade, 
and  a  good  supply  of  pure  fresh  air  in  the  room, 
together  with  the  application  of  alternating  hot  and 
cold  compresses,  and  no  drugs. 

Dr.  Kellogg  says  : — 

"Cool  compresses  or  ice-bags,  alternated  every  three  hours 
by  hot  fomentations  for  ten  minutes,  should  be  applied  to  the 
chest,  particularly  to  the  affected  side,  the  seat  of  pain.  The 
hot  fomentations  relieve  the  pain,  and  the  cold  compresses 
check  the  diseased  process.  The  compresses  should  be  wrung 
out  of  cold  water,  and  changed  every  five  to  eight  minutes,  or  as 
often  as  they  become  warm.  Although  the  cool  compresses 
are  not-  usually  liked  by  the  patient,  they  will  soon  give  relief 
if  their  use  is  continued,  and  they  do  much  towards  shortening 
the  course  of  the  disease.  Care  should  be  taken  to  keep  the 
patient's  body  from  being  wet  except  where  the  treatment  is 
applied.  The  cold  compress  is  much  used  in  the  large  hospi- 
tals of  Germany.  When  the  pulse  becomes  as  rapid  as  95  to 
no  or  more,  cool  sponging,  the  wet-sheet  pack,  the  cool  full 
bath  or  the  cool  enema  should  be  employed.  When  much 
chilliness  is  produced  by  the  contact  of  water  with  the  skin,  the 
cold  enema  is  a  most  admirably  useful  measure.  The  amount 
of  water  required  is  from  half  a  pint  to  a  pint.     The  tempera- 


.  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  203 

ture  may  be  40  to  60  degrees.  The  apartment  should  be  kept 
as  cool  as  possible  without  discomfort,  and  an  abundance  of 
fresh  air  should  be  continually  supplied. 

"  The  diet  of  the  patient  should  consist  of  milk,  oatmeal 
gruel,  ripe  fruit,  and  similar  easily  digested  food.  No  meat, 
eggs  or  other  stimulating  food  should  be  allowed. 

"  Discontinue  the  cold  treatment  after  the  first  twenty-four  to 
forty-eight  hours.  If  the  surface  is  cold,  apply  hot  sponging  or 
a  hot  pack.     Avoid  causing  chilliness." 

Pre-Natal  Influence  of  Alcohol  :— "  The  use  of  beer 
as  a  medicine  during  pregnancy  is  without  doubt  perilous  to 
the  health  and  vigor  of  the  offspring.  Children  born  under 
such  conditions  are  sickly  and  feeble,  and  suffer  from  disease 
more  severely  than  others,  or  die  early.  Alcoholic  prescriptions 
to  pregnant  women  are,  from  all  present  knowledge  of  the 
facts,  both  dangerous  and  reprehensible  in  the  highest  degree." 
—Dr.  T.  D.  Crothers,  Hartford,  Conn. 

"  M.  Fere,  an  eminent  French  physician,  recently  reported  to 
the  Biological  Society  of  Paris  the  results  of  experiments  which 
he  had  been  conducting  for  the  purpose  of  throwing  light  upon 
this  question.  These  experiments  demonstrate  that  the  expo- 
sure of  hen's  eggs  to  the  influence  of  the  vapor  of  alcohol, 
previous  to  incubation,  retards  the  development  of  the  embryo, 
and  favors  the  production  of  malformations.  It  is  evident  from 
these  experiments  that  alcohol  may  act  directly  upon  the  em- 
bryo when  there  is  no  marked  influence  of  alcoholism  in  the 
parent." 

Pain  After  Food  : — "  This  may  occur  in  acute  or  chronic 
gastric  catarrh,  or  in  a  neuralgic  or  oversensitive  condition  of 
the  stomach,  or  in  ulcer  or  cancer  of  that  organ.  In  all  these 
it  comes  on  soon  after  food  has  been  swallowed  ;  but,  if  occur- 
ring a  long  time  after  a  meal,  it  is  probably  due  to  atonic  dys- 
pepsia. Alcohol  will  undoubtedly  sometimes  relieve  this  kind  of 
pain  by  deadening  the  nerves  of  the  stomach  so  that  the  pain  is 


204  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

not  felt  so  much ;  but  this  effect  soon  passes  off,  and  if  the  cause 
of  the  malady  is  not  removed  by  other  means,  increasing  quanti- 
ties of  alcohol  will  be  required  to  give  relief.  Many  cases  of 
drink-craving  have  originated  in  this  way.  Medical  aid  will  gen- 
erally be  required.  A  small  mustard  poultice  over  the  pit  of  the 
stomach  is  often  useful,  especially  in  inflammatory  cases,  or  any 
other  outward  application  of  heat.  Food  should  be  fluid,  or 
semi-fluid,  and  digestible.  Ginger  tea,  or  peppermint  water, 
may  serve  to  disperse  gas. " 

POISON,   ANIMAL. 

The  following  by  Dr.  Chas.  H.  Shepard,  of  Brook- 
lyn, who  introduced  the  Turkish  bath  into  America, 
is  taken  from  the  Journal  of  the  A.  M.  A.,  for 
Nov.  13,  1897  : — 

"  Animal  poison  is  by  no  means  uncommon,  and  so  quick 
and  mysterious  is  its  action  that  a  prompt  remedy  is  a  vital  ne- 
cessity. There  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  the  numerous 
remedies  that  have  been  recommended  from  earliest  times  as 
antidotes  for  animal  poison  are  worthless,  as  they  have  not  the 
properties  commonly  ascribed  to  them.  The  paucity  of  reme- 
dies is  so  great  that  alcohol  is  the  one  which  comes  most 
quickly  to  the  mind  of  those  who  have  been  taught  in  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  past,  and  who  are  not  fully  aware  of  its  action  on 
the  human  system.  We  shall  endeavor  to  show  that  the  action 
of  alcohol  is  not  helpful,  but  on  the  contrary  is  really  detrimen- 
tal ;  and  also  that  there  is  a  better  way  out  of  the  difficulty. 

"  If  we  get  a  splinter  in  the  body,  vital  energy  is  aroused  to 
get  rid  of  the  offending  substance,  inflammation  is  set  up,  and 
sloughing  goes  on  until  the  splinter  is  voided.  If  the  splinter 
is  covered  with  acrid  material,  the  same  process  is  intensified, 
and  nature  endeavors  to  eliminate  the  offending  substance 
through  the  natural  excretions.  Upon  the  peculiarity  of  the 
material  depends  the  direction  of  this  elimination. 


ALCOHOL   AS   A   MEDICINE.  20$ 

"  It  is  well  known  that  some  poisons  are  thrown  off  by  the 
kidneys,  some  by  the  lungs,  while  others  again  are  attacked  by 
all  the  emunctories.  The  difference  in  the  power  of  the  sys- 
tem to  absorb  different  substances,  appropriate  whatever  can 
be  utilized,  and  throw  off  whatever  can  not  be  used,  is  some-  . 
times  called  idiosyncrasy,  but  more  properly  it  may  be  called 
vital  resistance,  and  upon  the  integrity  of  this  power  rests  the 
ability  to  combat  disease  in  all  its  forms,  whether  it  be  the  ab- 
sorption of  any  animal  virus  or  the  poison  resulting  from  undi- 
gested food.  This  ability  is  in  proportion  to  the  integrity  and 
soundness  of  every  tissue  and  organ  of  the  body.  This  may  be 
illustrated  by  the  fact  that  with  a  person  suffering  from  kidney 
disease,  which  necessarily  impedes  elimination,  the  ordinary 
effects  of  a  poison  are  intensified ;  therefore  whatever  aids  in 
the  promotion  of  good  health,  or  in  other  words,  the  normal 
action  of  all  the  functions,  will  contribute  to  the  safety  of  the 
individual  in  any  and  every  emergency. 

"  When  a  person  dies  from  the  effect  of  poisoning,  it  is  sim- 
ply because  the  system  was  unable  to  eliminate  the  offending 
substance  and  was  exhausted  in  the  effort.  There»is  a  tolerance 
of  some  substances  which  frequently  results  in  chronic  disease, 
and  again  it  is  shown  in  what  is  called  the  cumulative  effect  or 
acute  disease. 

"  Those  who  would  hold  that  a  substance  is  at  one  time  a 
medicament,  and  at  another  time  a  poison,  have  much  trouble 
in  drawing  the  line  between  the  beneficial  and  the  poisonous 
effect.  The  idea  that  poisonous  substances  act  on  the  system 
is  responsible  for  many  grave  mistakes,  whereas  always,  and 
under  all  circumstances,  it  is  the  system  that  does  all  the  action. 

"  There  might  be  some  excuse  for  the  idea  that  disease  is  an 
entity,  from  the  facts  that  have  been  brought  to  light  by  the 
germ  theory,  but  this  theory  is  of  recent  date,  while  the  entity 
theory  is  as  old  as  superstition. 

"  Snake  poison,  which  may  be  cited  as  a  type  of  other  animal 


206  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

poisons,  takes  effect  through  the  circulation,  and  acts  by  para- 
lyzing the  nerve  centres,  and  by  altering  the  condition  of  the 
blood.  In  ordinary  cases  death  seems  to  take  place  by  arrest 
of  respiration,  from  paralysis  of  the  nerves  of  motion.  The 
poison  also  acts  septically,  producing  at  a  later  period  slough- 
ing and  hemorrhage. 

"  Dr.  Calmette,  a  noted  French  scientist,  claims  that  what  is 
poisonous  in  the  snake's  bite,  is  not  the  venom  absorbed  into 
the  blood,  but  a  principle  which  the  blood  itself  has  developed 
out  of  the  poison.  This  would  necessitate  very  quick  action 
when  the  poison  is  inserted  in  one  of  the  large  veins,  as  that  is 
followed  by  instant  death. 

"  The  following  cases  fairly  represent  some  of  the  tragedies 
that  are  occurring  in  our  everyday  life. 

"  A  man  60  years  old  falls  and  dislocates  his  finger,  he  goes 
to  the  hospital,  where  in  a  short  time  he  dies  from  blood  poison- 
ing, *****  Another  man  48  years  old,  many  years  a  wine 
merchant,  whose  great  toe  was  severely  crushed  by  a  heavy 
man  stepping  on  it,  was  taken  with  blood-poisoning  and  in 
spite  of  all  treatment,  even  to  the  amputation  of  the  leg,  he 
soon  succumbed  to  the  disease.  *****  a  young  woman 
24  years  old,  picks  a  pimple  on  her  chin  and  at  once  her  face 
begins  to  swell.  In  vain  was  all  medical  treatment,  for  in  a 
few  days  she  died  in  terrible  agony.  *****  About  a  year 
ago  there  died  in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  a  physician  in  his  38th  year, 
who  six  days  previously  received  a  slight  scratch  in  his  hand 
while  performing  a  post-mortem  examination.  All  that  medical 
science  could  suggest  was  done  to  no  avail.  *****  in 
the  summer  of  1896  a  young  woman  22  years  of  age  was  bitten 
on  the  leg  by  an  insect.  Several  physicians  were  called  in  but 
their  treatment  gave  no  relief ;  blood-poisoning  set  in  ;  it  was 
decided  to  amputate  the  leg,  but  before  it  could  be  done  she 
died.  *****  In  July,  1896,  a  veterinary  surgeon  34  years 
of  age,  while  removing  a  cancer  from  a  horse  pricked  his  finger 
with  his   knife.     The  wound  was  so  slight  that  he   forgot  all 


ALCOHOL   AS   A   MEDICINE.  207 

about  it.  A  few  days  later  blood-poisoning  set  in  and  in  a 
short  time  his  end  came.  *****  Some  forty  years  ago  a 
man  named  Whitney  was  teasing  a  rattlesnake  in  a  Broadway 
barroom,  was  bitten  by  it,  and,  though  whisky  was  poured 
down  his  throat  by  the  quart,  he  soon  died. 

"  Such  results  seem  entirely  unnecessary  were  the  proper 
course  pursued,  and  at  the  same  time  they  are  a  fearful  com- 
mentary on  the  medical  resources  of  the  day. 

"  The  latest  researches  in  regard  to  alcohol  reveal  it  as  a 
poison  to  the  human  system  in  whatever  way  it  may  be  diluted 
or  disguised.  Its  effect  is  always  the  same  in  proportion  to  the 
amount  taken.  It  is  impossible  to  habitually  use  it  in  any 
form,  even  in  small  quantities,  without  disease  and  degenera- 
tion resulting  therefrom.  When  taken  into  the  stomach  the 
action  is  the  same  as  with  any  other  narcotic ;  the  meaning  of 
this  word  is  to  become  torpid.  It  benumbs  the  nerves  of  sensa- 
tion, and  thus  the  vital  resistance  to  any  offending  material  is 
reduced,  and  while  the  patient/><?/.?  less  of  any  disturbance  the 
real  harm  goes  on  with  accumulated  force  because  of  the  lack 
of  vitality  and  non-resistance  of  the  nervous  system. 

"  When  the  body  is  in  the  throes  of  a  vital  struggle  with  a 
virulent  poison  it  would  seem,  to  any  unprejudiced  mind,  the 
height  of  folly  to  further  weaken  the  vital  resistance  by  the 
administration  of  any  narcotic,  and  especially  alcohol. 

"  The  eminent  German,  Professor  Bunge,  says  :  '  All  the 
results  which  on  superficial  observation  appear  to  show  that 
alcohol  possesses  stimulant  properties,  can  be  explained  on  the 
ground  that  they  were  due  to  paralysis. '  *****  Professors 
S.  Weir  Mitchell  and  E.  T.  Reichert,  in  Researches  on  Ser- 
pent Poison,  make  this  notable  statement  :  '  Despite  the 
popular  creed,  it  is  now  pretty  sure  that  many  men  have  been 
killed  by  the  alcohol  given  to  relieve  them  from  the  effects  of 
snake  bite,  and  it  is  a  matter  of  record  that  men  dead  drunk 
with  whiskey  and  then  bitten,  have  died  of  the  Lite.' 


208  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

"  As  a  great  contrast  to  the  weakness  of  the  mass  of  our 
people  who  are  drug-takers  and  alcohol-consumers,  and  who 
are  liable  to  almost  any  epidemic  that  comes  along,  and  quickly 
succumb  to  a  serious  injury,  may  be  mentioned  the  Turkish 
soldiers  of  to-day,  who  know  nothing  of  drugs  as  we  use  them 
and  never  use  alcohol  in  any  form.  During  the  late  controversy 
with  the  Greeks,  one  of  them  who  was  reported  as  having  been 
shot  in  the  stomach,  remained  in  the  ranks,  and  afterward 
walked  ten  miles.  Another  one  who  was  wounded  twice  in 
the  legs  and  once  in  the  shoulder,  continued  attending  to  his 
duties  for  twenty-four  hours,  until  an  officer  noticed  his  con- 
dition and  ordered  him  to  the  hospital.  The  heat  was  tremen- 
dous, but  the  troops  endured  it  without  complaint,  and  the 
doctors  were  astonished  at  the  wonderful  vitality  of  the  wounded 
Turks,  who  recovered  with  remarkable  rapidity.  This,  with  good 
reason,  is  attributed  to  their  abstemious  lives. 

"  It  has  been  stated  that  the  Moqui  Indians  handle  the 
rattlesnake  with  impunity,  and  are  not  inconvenienced  by  its 
occasional  bite. 

"  The  rational  treatment  of  animal  poison  is  to  endeavor  to 
prevent  the  entry  of  the  virus  into  the  circulation  and  to  neutralize 
it  in  the  wound  before  it  is  absorbed  ;  but  when  it  has  entered 
the  system  everything  should  be  done  for  its  elimination. 

"  The  most  powerful  aid  to  the  human  system,  and  the  most 
perfect  eliminator  known  to  man  is  heat.  It  is  used  with  much 
advantage,  and  great  success  by  means  of  water,  both  internally 
and  externally,  but  above  all  is  its  use  by  hot  air,  as  in  the 
Turkish  bath,  which  works  in  harmony  with  every  natural 
function,  promoting  the  action  of  all  the  secretions,  and  more 
particularly  the  excretions.  By  this  means  will  the  system  un- 
load itself  of  an  accumulation  of  impurities  in  an  incredibly 
short  space  of  time,  while  the  heat  aids  in  destroying  whatever 
there  may  be  of  virus  therein. 

"  Calmette,   whom   we  have  previously  quoted,   has  shown 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  20O, 

that  whatever  be  the  source  of  snake  venom,  its  active  principle 
is  destroyed  by  being  submitted  to  a  temperature  of  about  212 
degrees  for  a  variable  length  of  time. 

"  In  the  not  remote  future  thousands  of  human  beings  will 
owe  to  the  Turkish  bath  not  only  an  immunity  from  disease 
in  general,  but  also  an  escape  from  the  horrors  of  a  premature 
death  from  hydrophobia,  the  poison  of  snake  bite,  or  the  slower 
action  of  infectious  disease. 

*  The  mass  of  testimony  that  has  been  accumulating  for 
over  thirty  years  past  is  more  than  sufficient  to  convince  any 
reasonable  mind  that  is  willing  to  examine  the  facts. 

"  The  medical  profession  has  searched  the  world  over  and 
under  for  the  means  of  controlling  disease,  while  within  the 
human  body  itself  lies  the  vital  power  which  needs  only  to  be 
cultivated  and  exalted  to  its  true  function  to  banish  the  mass 
of  disease  from  the  land." 

Dr.  Shepard  states  in  another  article  that  Turkish 
baths  are  now  used  in  London  and  Paris  for  the 
cure  of  hydrophobia. 

Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg  says  : — 

"  A  great  number  of  remedies  have  acquired  the  reputation 
of  being  cures  for  snake  bites.  The  partisans  of  each  one  of 
these  have  been  able  to  produce  a  large  number  of  cases,  which 
apparently  supported  their  claims  ;  the  uniform  testimony  of  all 
scientific  authorities  upon  this  subject,  however,  is  that  all  these 
so-called  antidotes  are  worthless.  Prof.  W.  Watson  Cheyne, 
M.  B.,  F.  R.  C.  S.,  surgeon  of  Kings  College  Hospital,  London, 
England,  states,  in  the  International  Encyclopedia  of  Surgery, 
that  ■  there  is  no  known  antidote  by  which  the  venom  can  be 
neutralized,  nor  any  prophylactic'  This  eminent  authority  also 
remarks  further  :  '  Hence  medication  with  this  view  is  to  be 
avoided  altogether,  and  the  aim  of  treatment  should  be  to  pre- 
vent the  poison  from  gaining  access  to  the  general  circulation, 


210  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

and  to  avoid  its  prostrating  effects  if  its  entrance  has  already- 
taken  place.'  The  same  writer  asserts  that  the  only  aim  of  the 
constitutional  treatment  should  be  « to  sustain  the  strength  un- 
til the  poison  shall  have  been  eliminated.'  The  idea  that  the 
saturation  of  the  body  with  whisky  to  the  point  of  intoxication, 
if  possible,  is  beneficial  in  these  cases,  is  in  the  highest  degree 
erroneous.  Whisky  intoxication,  according  to  Dr.  Cheyne, 
actually  '  favors  the  injurious  effect  of  the  poison.  What  is  re- 
quired is  to  keep  the  patient  alive  until  the  poison  has  been 
eliminated.'  Whisky  will  not  do  this,  but  actually  aids  the 
poison  in  its  fatal  work  by  lessening  the  resistance  of  the 
patient,  and  hence  lessening  his  chances  for  recovery. 

"  The  reputation  of  whisky  as  a  remedy  in  these  cases  is  due 
to  the  fact  that  on  an  average  only  one  person  in  eight  who  is 
bitten  by  a  rattlesnake  is  really  poisoned  ;  the  reasons  for  this 
were  fully  explained  in  an  interesting  paper  on  '  Rattlesnakes,' 
by  the  eminent  Dr.  S.  Weir  Mitchell,  and  published  in  the 
Smithsonian  Contributions  to  Knowledge  for  i860.  If  the 
snake  strikes  several  times  before  inflicting  a  wound,  the  sacs 
containing  the  venom  may  be  emptied,  so  that  the  succeeding 
bite  will  introduce  only  the  most  minute  quantity  of  poison — 
not  enough  to  produce  serious,  or  fatal  results.  If  the  part 
bitten  is  covered  by  clothing,  the  poison  may  be  absorbed  by 
the  clothing,  so  that  but  very  little  enters  the  circulation.  In 
various  other  ways  the  snake  is  prevented  from  inflicting  a  fatal 
wound.  The  popular  idea,  that  every  bite  of  a  rattlesnake  is 
necessarily  poisonous,  is  thus  shown  to  be  erroneous.  It  is  not 
at  all  probable  that  the  administration  of  whisky  has  ever  in 
any  case  contributed  to  the  long  life  of  a  person  bitten  by  a 
rattlesnake. 

"  Whisky  is  often  recommended  by  physicians  with  the  idea 
that  it  will  sustain  the  energies  of  the  patient,  or  will  stimulate 
the  heart,  etc.  ;  but  it  has  been  clearly  shown  that  alcohol 
in  all  forms  is  not  only  useless  for  these  purposes,  but  does 
actual  damage,  since  it   lessens  the  resistance  of  the  patient, 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  211 

weakens  the  heart,  and  helps  along  the  prostration  which  is  the 
characteristic  effect  of  the  rattlesnake  venom.  Alcohol  has, 
for  many  years,  been  used  as  an  antidote  for  collapse  under  an 
anaesthetic  administered  for  surgical  purposes,  but  no  intelligent 
physician  nowadays  thinks  of  using  alcohol  for  such  a  purpose  ; 
instead,  alcohol  is  given  before  the  anaesthetic  forthe  purpose 
of  facilitating  its  effect.  Errors  of  this  sort  which  have  once 
become  established  are  very  hard  to  uproot.  Probably  some 
physicians  will  continue  to  use  alcohol  for  shock,  exhaustion, 
general  debility  and  similar  conditions  as  well  as  for  rattle- 
snake poisoning  for  another  quarter  of  a  century,  but  such  use 
of  alcohol  does  not  belong  to  the  domain  of  rational  medi- 
cine and  is  not  supported  by  scientific  facts." 

11  Under  the  Pasteur  method,  a  man  who  did  not  take  alcohol 
was  much  more  likely  to  recover  from  the  bite  of  a  mad  dog 
than  one  bitten  under  the  same  conditions,  who  used  that  drug ; 
wh^le  in  lock-jaw  there  was  absolute  failure  to  secure  immunity 
if  the  patient  had  taken  alcohol.  In  India  it  used  to  be  given  in 
large  quantities  for  snake  bite,  but  it  was  found  that  it  had  a 
direct  effect  in  interfering  with  the  processes  of  repair,  and  so 
is  being  abandoned." — Dr.  Sims  Woodhead,  of  the  Royal 
College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  London,  Eng. 

Dr.  Ricketts,  writing  on  "  Snake  Bites,"  says  : — • 

"  Over-stimulation,  from  alcohol  and  other  agencies,  is  oftener 
the  cause  of  death  than  virus-inoculation."— Journal  of  In- 
ebriety, Oct.,  1899. 

Rheumatism  : — "  Unquestionably,  the  most  active  cause  of 
rheumatism,  as  well  as  of  migraine,  sick-headache,  Bright's 
disease,  neurasthenia  and  a  number  of  other  kindred  diseases, 
is  the  general  use  of  flesh  food,  tea  and  coffee,  and  alcoholic 
liquors.  As  regards  remedies,  there  are  no  medicinal  agents 
which  are  of  any  permanent  value  in  the  treatment  of  chronic 
rheumatism.     The  disease  can  be  remedied  only  by  regimen, 


212  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

— that  is,  by  diet  and  training.  A  simple  dietary,  consisting  of 
fruits,  grains,  and  nuts,  and  particularly  the  free  use  of  fruits, 
must  be  placed  in  the  first  rank  among  the  radical  curative 
measures.  Water,  if  taken  in  abundance,  is  also  a  means  of 
washing  out  the  accumulated  poisons. 

"  An  individual  afflicted  with  rheumatism  in  any  form  should 
live,  so  far  as  possible,  an  out-of-door  life,  taking  daily  a  suf- 
ficient amount  of  exercise  to  induce  vigorous  perspiration.  A 
cool  morning  sponge  bath,  followed  by  vigorous  rubbing,  and  a 
moist  pack  to  the  joints  most  seriously  affected,  at  night,  are 
measures  which  are  worthy  of  a  faithful  trial.  Every  person 
who  is  suffering  from  this  disease  should  give  the  matter  im- 
mediate attention,  as  it  is  a  malady  which  is  progressive,  and  is 
one  of  the  most  potent  causes  of  premature  old  age,  and  general 
physical  deterioration.  American  nervousness  is  probably  more 
often  due  to  uric  acid,  or  to  the  poisons  which  it  represents, 
than  to  any  other  one  cause." — Good  Health. 

"  Alcohol  favors  the  development  of  rheumatism.  It  does 
this  by  preventing  waste  matter  from  leaving  the  system.  Beer 
and  wTine,  because  they  contain  lime  and  salts,  are  said  to 
cause  rheumatism,  or  at  least  to  aid  in  its  development.  These 
salts  are  absorbed  into  the  system,  unite  with  the  uric  acid, 
and  form  an  insoluble  urate  of  lime,  which  is  deposited  around 
the  joints,  thus  causing  them  to  become  enlarged  and  stiff  ***** 

"  The  success  of  the  Turkish  bath  treatment  has  been  phe- 
nomenal. Of  over  3,000  cases  treated  here  at  least  95  per  cent, 
have  been  entirely  relieved,  or  greatly  helped.  Some  who  were 
treated  over  twenty  years  ago  have  stated  that  they  have  not 
had  a  twinge  of  rheumatism  since.  Very  few  have  persevered 
in  the  use  of  the  bath  without  experiencing  permanent  relief." — 
Dr.  Charles  H.  Shepard,  Brooklyn. 

"  Those  having  a  bath  cabinet  can  have  a  good  substitute  at 
home  for  the  Turkish  bath.  Remember  that  if  tobacco  and  al- 
cohol are  indulged  in,  there  can  be  no  permanent  relief." 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  21 3 

The  New  Hygiene  says  : — 

"  Under  no  circumstances  take  any  of  the  thousand  and  one 
nostrums  advertised  as  sure  cures  for  this  disease.  Pure  un- 
adulterated blood  is  the  only  remedy.  This  can  only 'be  pro- 
duced by  cleansing  the  system  of  impurities,  and  giving  it  the 
right  kind  of  material  out  of  which  to  make  it.  Keep  out  the 
poisonous  physic,  clean  out  the  colon,  strengthen  the  lungs,  and 
feed  the  system  with  proper  food,  and  this  disease  will  vanish 
like  a  fog  before  the  rising  sun." 

The  same  book  in  advocating  the  use  of  the  Turk- 
ish bath  for  rheumatism,  says  : — 

"  The  fact,  which  is  well  attested,  that  when  a  person  enters 
the  bath  the  urine  may  be  strongly  acid,  but,  on  leaving  the 
bath,  after  half  an  hour,  it  is  markedly  alkaline,  shows  that  the 
bath  has  a  strong  effect  upon  the  system." 

Dr.  Ridge  says  of  rheumatic  fever  : — 
"  I  would  urge  most  strongly  the  desirability  of  avoiding 
every  form  of  alcoholic  liquor,  from  the  very  commencement  of 
the  disease,  as  affording  the  best  chance  for  a  speedy  and  safe 
recovery.  The  highest  authorities  are  agreed  on  this  point,  but 
there  is  a  lingering  practice  which  makes  reference  necessary  in 
order  to  confirm  the  wavering." 

In  Mt.  Sinai  Hospital,  New  York,  the  hot  blanket 
pack  is  used  in  acute  rheumatism,  almost  to  the  ex- 
clusion of  other  methods.  The  pack  should  be 
continued  two  to  four  hours  at  least,  and  may  be 
repeated  two  or  three  times  within  the  twenty-four 
hours  with  advantage. 

Nature  Cure  says  that  thorough  massage,  and 
half  a  dozen  cups  of  hot  lemonade  will  cure  a  severe 
case  of  sciatica  : — 


214  ALCOHOL  AS  A    MEDICINE. 

"  The  massage  should  be  commenced  moderately,  and  in- 
creased as  the  patient  can  bear  it.  Rubbing  and  slapping  of 
the  muscles  with  bare  hands  will  hasten  a  cure,  and  be  agree- 
able to  the  patient.  One  to  two  hours  treatment,  if  vigorous, 
will  effect  a  cure." 

Sea-Sickness  : — Brandy  is  a  common  resort  in 
this  trouble,  many  taking  it  under  such  circum- 
stances who  would  under  no  other.  Yet  it  fre- 
quently adds  to  the  sickness,  instead  of  relieving 
it. 

"  Be  sparing  in  diet  for  two  or  three  days  before  the  expected 
voyage.  If  very  sensitive,  take  to  your  berth  as  soon  as  you 
go  on  board,  or  lie  down  on  deck ;  get  near  the  centre  of  the 
vessel,  and  lie  with  your  feet  to  the  stern.  Go  to  sleep  if 
possible.  Iced  water  may  be  sipped,  but  nothing  solid  should 
be  taken  at  first  ;  after  a  while  a  cracker  or  wafer  may  be 
taken." 

It  is  said  upon  good  authority  that  if  two  or  three 
apples  are  eaten  shortly  before  going  on  board,  or 
before  rough  water  is  encountered,  sea-sickness  is 
entirely  averted.  It  will  be  well  to  partake  of  no 
other  food  for  some  hours  previous  to  the  voyage 
I  when  trying  this. 

Good  Health  says  : — 

"'If  any  of  our  readers  have  occasion  to  cross  the  ocean  in  the 
stormy  season,  we  recommend  three  things  ;  keep  horizontal, 
with  the  head  low  ;  put  an  ice-bag  to  the  back  of  the  neck ; 
keep  the  stomach  clean,  free  from  greasy  foods  and  meats,  and  eat 
nothing  till  there  is  an  appetite  for  food.  A  habitually  clean 
dietary  before  going  on  board  is  doubtless  a  good  preparation 
for  such  a  voyage,  as  well  as  for  any  other  nerve  strain,  or  test 


ALCOHOL   AS   A   MEDICINE.  21 5 

of  endurance.     It  pays  to  be  good — to  your  stomach,  as  well  as 
in  other  ways." 

The  following  is  guaranteed  by  a  Russian  physi- 
cian to  be  an  effective  cure  and  a  means  of  avoid- 
ing sea-sickness  when  the  symptoms  first  make  their 
appearance.  Take  long  and  deep  inspirations. 
About  twenty  breaths  should  be  taken  every 
minute,  and  they  should  be  as  deep  as  possible. 
After  thirty  or  forty  inspirations  the  symptoms  will 
be  found  to  abate.  This  is  recommended  for 
dyspepsia  also. 

Sore  Nipples  : — "  Alum  water,  or  tannin,  used  for  several 
months  in  advance  will  harden  as  effectually  as  brandy.  If 
there  is  soreness  on  commencing  to  nurse,  put  a  pinch  of  alum 
into  milk,  and  apply  the  curd  to  the  nipple." 

Spasms  : — "  These  are  caused  by  flatulence,  as  a  result  of 
indigestion.  A  little  hot  ginger  tea,  or  capsicum  tea,  may  do 
all  that  is  required.  If  these  are  not  at  hand,  loosen  every 
tight  band,  rub  well  the  region  of  the  heart  and  stomach,  flap 
the  face  with  the  corner  of  a  wet  towel,  and  give  sips  of  cold 
water." 

Shock  : — "  In  shock,  or  collapse,  the  state  is  similar  in  some 
respects  to  that  which  is  present  in  fainting.  Every  function  is 
almost  at  a  standstill ;  absorption  from  the  stomach  and  else- 
where is  at  its  lowest  point,  because  the  circulation  of  the 
blood  is  so  much  interfered  with.  Hence  much  of  the  brandy 
which  is  so  often  given,  and  to  such  a  wonderful  amount,  with 
very  little  apparent  effect  of  intoxication,  is  really  not  absorbed 
at  all,  and  is  very  often  rejected  from  the  stomach  by  vomiting, 
when  reaction  does  occur,  if  not  before. 

"  The  patient  should  be  wrapped  up  warmly,  and  put  to  bed 
as  soon  as  possible.    The    limbs  may  be    rubbed  with  hot 


21.6  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

flannels,  and  hot  water  bottles  put  to  hands  and  feet.  In  some 
cases,  also,  towels  wrung  out  of  hot  water  may  be  wrapped 
around  the  head.  Hot  milk  and  water,  hot  water  slightly- 
sweetened,  or  with  a  little  peppermint  water  in  it,  should  be  given 
as  soon  as  the  patient  can  swallow.  Hot  beverages  will  warm 
the  skin  more  rapidly  and  powerfully  than  any  alcoholic  liquor. 

"  If  the  patient  cannot  swallow,  an  enema  of  hot  water,  or 
hot,  thin  gruel,  should  be  administered,  and  may  be  of  use  in 
addition  to  hot  drinks.  Beef  extract  may  be  added  to  the  hot 
water  with  advantage. 

"  In  the  vast  majority  of  cases  there  need  be  no  anxiety  so 
far  as  the  shock  is  concerned ;  reaction  will  occur  in  due  time 
if  ordinary  care  be  taken,  and  will  be  more  natural  and  steady 
if  the  system  is  not  embarrassed  by  the  presence  of  the  nar- 
cotic alcohol.  In  the  state  of  collapse  the  voluntary  nervous 
system  is  depressed ;  alcohol  diminishes  the  power  and  activity 
of  the  nervous  centres  of  the  brain,  hence  its  action  is  unde- 
sirable in  shock  or  collapse."— Dr-.  J.  J.  Ridge,  London. 

"  No  procedure  could  be  more  senseless  than  the  administer- 
ing alcohol  in  shock.  A  stimulant  of  some  kind  is  necessary 
in  such  cases,  and  alcohol,  instead  of  being  a  stimulant  is  a 
narcotic.  *****  Alcohol  causes  a  decrease  of  tempera- 
ture, the  very  thing  to  be  avoided  in  cases  of  shock." — Dr.  J. 
H.  Kellogg. 

"  I  am  perfectly  sure  that  a  large  dose  of  alcohol  in  shock 
puts  a  nail  in  the  coffin  of  the  patient." — Dr.  H.  C.  Wood  of 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

Sinking  Sensations  : — Many  women  have  a 
feeling  of  weakness  or  "  goneness  M  at  about  eleven 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  are  led  by  it  to  the 
injurious  practice  of  eating  between  meals.  It  is 
often  due  to  indigestion,  or  to  the  use  of  beer  or 
wine.     A    few   sips  of  hot  milk,  of   fruit  juice,  or 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  21J 

even  of  cold  water  will  often  relieve  it,  especially  if 
total  abstinence  is  persevered  in. 

Sudden  Illness: — "  Those  taken  suddenly  ill  are  likely  to 
fare  best  if  placed  in  a  recumbent  position,  with  head  slightly 
elevated,  all  tightness  of  garments  about  the  neck  or  waist 
relieved,  and  a  little  cold  water  given  in  case  of  ability  to 
swallow.  A  mustard  plaster  on  the  back  of  the  neck,  or  over 
the  stomach,  and  hot  water  or  hot  bottles  to  the  feet,  are  never 
out  of  place,  while  vinegar,  or  smelling  salts,  or  dilute  ammonia 
to  the  nostrils  is  reviving." — Ezra  M.  Hunt,  M.  D.,  late 
secretary  of  New  Jersey  State  Board  of  Health. 

"  Both  the  popular  and  professional  beliefs  in  the  efficacy  of 
alcoholic  liquids  for  relieving  exhaustion,  faintness,  shock,  etc. 
are  equally  fallacious.  All  these  conditionsare  temporary,  and 
rapidly  recovered  from  by  simply  the  recumbent  position,  and 
free  access  to  fresh  air.  Ninety-nine  out  of  every  hundred  of 
such  cases  pass  the  crisis  before  the  attendants  have  time  to 
apply  any  remedies,  and  when  they  do,  the  sprinkling  of  cold 
water  on  the  face,  and  the  vapor  of  camphor  or  carbonate  of 
ammonia  to  the  nostrils,  are  the  most  efficacious  remedies,  and 
leave  none  of  the  secondary  evil  effects  of  brandy,  whisky  or 
wine."— Dr.  N.  S.  Davis. 

Sunstroke:— "There  has  lately  been  a  correspondence  in 
the  Morning  Post  on  the  subject  of  '  Sunstroke  and  Alcohol.' 
We  quite  agree  with  the  statement  that  '  nothing  predisposes 
people  to  sunstroke  so  much  as  this  pernicious  habit  of  taking 
stimulants  (so-called)  during  the  hot  weather.'  As  far  as  this 
country  is  concerned,  nearly  every  case  of  sunstroke  might  be 
more  appropriately  designated  '  beerstroke.'  One  effect  of 
alcohol  is  to  paralyze  the  heat-regulating  mechanism  ;  the  blood 
becomes  overloaded  with  waste  material,  and  the  narcotism, 
and  vasomotor  paralysis,  produced  by  the  alcohol,  is  added  to 
that  produced  by  the  heat.  Abstainers,  other  things  being 
equal,  can  always  endure  extremes  of  temperature  better  than 
consumers  of  alcohol." — Medical  Pioneer,  England. 


21 8  ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE. 

"  During  the  month  of  January,  1896,  there  occurred  over  three 
hundred  deaths  from  sunstroke  in  Australia.  When  called 
upon  to  offer  suggestions  relative  to  its  prevention,  the  medical 
board  promptly  informed  the  Colonial  government  that,  of  all 
the  predisposing  causes,  none  were  so  potent  as  indulgence  in 
intoxicating  liquors,  and  in  its  treatment  nothing  seemed  to 
have  a  more  disastrous  effect  than  the  administration  of  alco- 
holic stimulants." — Medical  News. 

The  Bulletin  of  the  A.  M.  T.  A.  for  August,  1896, 
contained  the  following  : — 

"  Recently  a  leading  medical  man,  a  teacher  in  a  college, 
warned  his  student  audience  against  the  anti-alcoholic  theories 
urged  by  extremists  and  persons  whose  zeal  was  greater  than 
their  intelligence.  He  affirmed  positively  that  the  value  of 
alcohol  was  well  known  in  medicine,  and  established  by  long 
years  of  experience. 

"  Not  long  afterward  a  man  was  brought  into  his  office  in  a 
state  of  collapse  from  sunstroke,  and  this  physician  and  teacher 
ordered  large  quantities  of  brandy  to  be  administered ;  the  pa- 
tient died  soon  after." 

Dr.  T.  D.  Crothers  tells  of  a  case  where  alcohol 
was  administered  to  a  child  for  partial  sunstroke, 
and  says,  "  there  were  many  reasons  for  believing 
that  the  profound  poisoning  from  alcohol  gave  a 
permanent  bias  and  tendency  that  developed  into 
inebriety  later." 

"  When  a  person  falls  with  sunstroke  (or  heatstroke)  he 
should  at  once  be  carried  to  a  cool,  shady  place.  His  clothing 
should  be  removed,  and  cold  applications  made  to  the  head, 
and  over  the  whole  body.  Pieces  of  ice  may  be  packed  around 
the  head,  or  cold  water  may  be  poured  upon  the  body.  Cold 
enema  may  also  be  employed.     In  case  the    face  is  pale,  hot 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  219 

applications  should  be  made  to  the  head  and  over  the  heart 
and  the  body  should  be  rubbed  vigorously."— Dr.  J.  H.  Kel- 
logg. 

TYPHOID    FEVER. 

As  many  lives  are  lost  by  this  disease,  its  treat- 
ment must  ever  be  one  of  intense  interest,  not  only 
to  physicians,  but  also  to  all  humanity.  Since 
non-alcoholic  treatment  has  reduced  the  death-rate 
in  typhoid  to  five  per  cent.,  the  views  regarding  such 
treatment  expressed  by  leading  practitioners  will 
doubtless  be  read  with  eagerness. 

The  following  is  a  paper  by  Dr.  N.  S.  Davis 
taken  from  the  Medical  Temperance  Quarterly. 

"  Alleged  Indications  for  the  Use  of  Alcohol  in 
the  Treatment  of  Typhoid  Fever  : — On  the  first  page  of 
the  first  number  of  a  new  medical  journal  bearing  date  July,  1895, 
maybe  found  the  following  statement :  ■  The  question  of  admin- 
istering alcohol  comes  up  in  every  case  of  typhoid  fever.  In  mild 
cases,  especially  when  the  patient  is  young,  healthy  and  tem- 
perate, stimulants  are  not  needed  so  long  as  the  disease  follows 
the  typical  course.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  alcohol  should  be 
avoided  when  not  absolutely  demanded.  There  is,  however, 
I  generally  such  a  dangerous  tendency  toward  nervous  exhaus- 
tion, that  in  a  majority  of  cases  more  or  less  alcohol  is  required. 
The  indication  which  calls  for  its  use  is  an  inability  to  adminis- 
ter enough  food.  *****  Again,  the  existence  of  high 
temperature  nearly  always  makes  it  necessary  to  stimulate  the 
patient,  as  does  threatened  nervous  exhaustion  and  heart 
failure,  for  immediate  effect ,  likewise  a  weak,  small,  compres- 
sible, rapid  pulse,  with  impaired  cardiac  impulse  and  systolic 
sound,  is  a  frequent  indication  ;  other  remedies  may  be  re- 
quired, but  alcohol  cannot  be  dispensed  with.'     The  next  para- 


220  ALCOHOL  AS  A  MEDICINE. 

graph  continues  :  '  It  is  necessary  to  give  alcohol  in  serious 
complications  of  typhoid  fever,  such  as  pneumonia,  pleurisy, 
hemorrhage  and  severe  bronchitis  or  diarrhoea.  It  is  best  to  be- 
gin giving  it  early  and  in  small  quantities  :  two  to  six  ounces  is 
a  moderate  amount,  eight  to  twelve  ounces  daily  is  not  too 
much  for  adynamic  or  complicated  cases.' 

"  The  foregoing  quotations  purport  to  have  been  condensed 
from  one  of  our  recent  authoritative  works  on  practical  medi- 
cine, and  doubtless  fairly  represent  the  prevailing  opinions 
concerning  the  use  of  alcohol  in  the  treatment  of  typhoid  and 
other  fevers,  both  in  and  out  of  the  profession.  A  careful 
reading  will  show  that  the  whole  is  founded  on  the  following 
four  assumptions  : — 

"  i.  That  alcohol  when  taken  into  the  living  body  acts  as  a 
general  stimulant,  and  especially  so  to  the  cardiac  and  vaso- 
motor functions.  2.  That  in  mild,  uncomplicated  cases  of 
typhoid  fever  in  young  and  previously  healthy  subjects,  stimu- 
lants are  not  required  and  no  alcohol  should  be  given.  3.  That 
in  a  '  majority  of  cases '  the  tendency  toward  dangerous  '  ner- 
vous exhaustion  '  and  '  heart  failure '  is  so  great  that  the  giving 
of  '  more  or  less  alcohol  is  required.'  4.  The  amount  required 
may  vary  from  two  to  twelve  or  more  ounces  per  day. 

"  In  the  two  preceding  numbers  of  this  journal,  I  have  en- 
deavored to  show  that  the  chief  causes  of  nervous  exhaustion 
and  heart  failure,  in  typhoid  and  other  fevers  were  impairment 
of  the  hemoglobin  and  corpuscular  elements  of  the  blood,  defi- 
cient reception  and  internal  distribution  of  oxygen,  and  molecu- 
lar degeneration  of  the  muscular  structures  of  the  heart  itself. 
These  important  pathological  conditions  are  doubtless  caused 
by  the  specific  toxic  agent  or  agents  giving  rise  to  the  fever. 
Consequently  the  rational  objects  of  treatment  are  to  stop  the 
further  action  of  the  specific  cause,  either  by  neutralization,  or 
elimination,  or  both ;  to  stop  the  further  impairment  of  the 
hemoglobin  and  other  elements  of  the  blood  ;  and   to  increase 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  221 

the  reception  and  internal  distribution  of  oxygen,  by  which  we 
will  most  effectually  prevent  further  fatty  or  granular  degenera- 
tion of  cardiac  and  other  structures.  The  language  of  the 
paragraphs  I  have  quoted,  fairly  assumes  that  alcohol  is  a 
stimulant  capable  of  relieving  nervous  exhaustion  and  cardiac 
failures,  regardless  of  the  causes  producing  those  pathological 
conditions,  and  consequently  its  use  is  necessary  in  the  '  major- 
ity of  cases  '  of  typhoid  fever. 

"  Can  such  an  assumption  be  sustained  by  either  established 
facts,  or  correct  reasoning  ?  Can  nervous  and  cardiac  exhaus- 
tion, induced  by  the  presence  of  toxic  agents  in  the  blood,  with 
deficiency  of  both  hemoglobin  and  oxygen,  be  relieved  by  a 
simple  stimulant,  that  neither  neutralizes  nor  eliminates  the 
toxic  agents,  nor  increases  either  the  hemoglobin  or  oxygen  ? 
That  alcohol  does  not  neutralize  or  destroy  toxic  ptomaines,  or 
tox-albumins,  is  proved  by  abundant  clinical  experience,  and  also 
by  the  fact  that  chemists  use  it  freely  in  the  processes  for  separa- 
ting these  substances  from  other  organic  matters  for  experi- 
mental purposes.  That  its  presence  in  the  living  body  retards 
metabolic  changes  generally,  and  thereby  aids  in  retaining 
instead  of  eliminating  toxic  agents  of  all  kinds,  has  been  so 
fully  shown  in  the  pages  of  preceding  numbers  of  the  Medical 
Temperance  Quarterly,  that  the  leading  facts  need  not  be  re- 
peated here.  That  its  presence  does  not  increase  the  hemo- 
globin, or  favor  oxy-hemoglobin  or  increased  internal  distribu- 
tion of  oxygen,  but  decidedly  the  reverse,  has  been  equally  well 
demonstrated  by  numerous  and  reliable  experimental  researches 
in  this  and  other  countries. 

"  Then  it  must  be  conceded  that  alcohol  is  not  capable  of 
fulfilling  either  of  the  important  indications  presented  in  the 
treatment  of  typhoid  fever  as  stated  above.  Nevertheless,  the 
advocates  of  its  use  apparently  recognize  but  two  ideas  or 
factors  in  these  cases,  namely,  the  popularly  inherited  assump- 
tion that  alcohol  is  a  stimulant,  and  as  the  patient  is  in  danger 
from  nervous  and  cardiac  weakness,  therefore  the  alcohol  must 


222  ALCOHOL  AS  A    MEDICINE. 

be  given,  pro  re  nata  without  the  slightest  regard  to  the  exist- 
ing causes  of  the  weakness,  or  the  modus  operandi  of  the  so- 
called  stimulant.      v 

"This  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  they  group  together  as- 
stimulants,  and  give  to  the  same  patient  in  alternate  doses, 
remedies  of  directly  antagonistic  action,  as  alcohol  and  strych- 
nine, or  digitalis,  etc. 

"  The  accepted  definition  of  a  stimulant  in  medical  literature, 
is  some  agent  capable  of  exciting  or  increasing  vital  activity  as 
a  whole,  or  the  natural  activity  of  some  one  structure  or  organ. 

"For  instance,  both  clinical  and  experimental  observations 
show  that  strychnine  directly  increases  the  functional  activity  of 
the  respiratory,  cardiac  and  vasomotor  nervous  systems,  and 
thereby  increases  the  internal  distribution  of  oxygen,  which  is- 
nature's  own  special  exciter  of  all  vital  action.  Therefore  it  is 
properly  a  direct  respiratory,  cardiac  and  vasomotor  stimulant 
and  indirectly  a  stimulator  of  all  vital  processes.  But  the  same 
kind  of  clinical  and  experimental  observations  show  that 
alcohol  directly  diminishes  the  functional  activity  of  all  nerve 
structures,  pre-eminently  those  of  respiration  and  circulation, 
and  also  of  all  metabolic  processes,  whether  respirative,  disin- 
tegrative or  secretory.  Consequently  it  not  only  acts  as  directly 
antagonistic  to  strychnine,  but  equally  so  to  all  true  stimulants 
or  remedies  capable  of  increasing  vital  activity.  Instead,  there- 
fore, of  meriting  the  name  of  stimulant,  alcohol  should  be  des- 
ignated and  used  only  as  an  anaesthetic  and  sedative,  or 
depressor  of  vital  activity. 

"  And  a  thorough  and  impartial  investigation  will  show  that  its 
use  in  the  treatment  of  typhoid  and  other  fevers,  while  deceiv- 
ing both  physician  and  patient,  by  its  anaesthetic  effect  in  dimin- 
ishing restlessness,  both  prolongs  the  duration  and  increases 
the  ratio  of  mortality  of  the  disease,  by  its  impairment  of  vital 
activity  in  the  organizable  elements  of  both  blood  and  tissues." 

Equally  interesting   is   the    following  outline  of 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  223 

treatment  pursued  by  Dr.  W.  H.  Riley,  now  super- 
intendent  of  a  sanitarium  in  Colorado. 

"  The  purpose  of  the  present  paper  is  to  give  briefly  an  out- 
line of  the  method  of  treatment  of  typhoid  fever  as  used  by  the 
writer  in  a  considerable  number  of  cases. 

"  A  consideration  of  the  pathology  of  this  disease  does  not 
properly  come  under  this  head,  but  we  wish  simply  to  call  at- 
tention to  the  well-known  fact  that  typhoid  fever  is  a  germ 
disease.  The  germ  which  causes  this  fever  has  generally  been 
supposed  to  be  the  bacillus  of  Eberth.  More  recent  bacterio- 
logical studies  rather  indicate  that  the  bacillus  coli  may  also 
cause  the  disease.  These  germs  are  usually  carried  into  the 
body  in  food  or  drink,  and,  lodging  in  the  small  intestines,  be- 
gin to  grow  and  multiply,  and  by  their  life  produce  poisonous 
ptomaines  which  are  absorbed  and  carried  by  the  circulation  to 
all  the  organs  and  tissues  of  the  body. 

"  It  is  these  ptomaines,  thus  carried  to  all  parts  of  the  body, 
that  are  largely  the  immediate  cause  of  the  pyrexia  and  attend- 
ing symptoms.  The  organisms  which  produce  these  poisons 
for  the  most  part  remain  in  the  intestines,  although  they  have 
been  found  in  the  spleen. 

"  The  indications  for  treatment  are  : — 

"1.  To  remove  or  destroy  the  cause  (to  eliminate  the  germs 
and  ptomaines  from  the  body). 

"  2.  To  sustain  the  vital  and  resisting  powers  of  the  patient. 

"  If  the  patient  is  seen  early  in  the  disease,  it  has  been  my 
practice  to  immediately  put  him  to  bed  and  give  a  free  dose  of 
magnesium  sulphate.  This  is  preferably  given  in  the  morning 
or  forenoon,  and  may  be  repeated  once  or  twice  on  successive 
days.  Besides  this  the  patient  should  have  a  large  enema  of 
water  at  a  temperature  of  from  750  to  8o°  F.  ;  and  this  may  be 
repeated  daily  or  even  oftener,  for  some  time,  if  necessary,  to 
keep  the  bowels  empty  of  the  poisonous  substances. 


224  ALCOHOL  AS  A    MEDICINE. 

"  The  salines  and  enemas  thus  used  carry  out  bodily  a  large 
number  of  germs  and  ptomaines  that  are  present  in  the  intest- 
ines; and  further,  the  salines,  by  producing  an  increased 
secretion  of  the  mucous  membrane  of  the  intestines,  tend  to 
disentangle  and  set  free  many  of  the  germs  that  have  found  a 
lodging  place  in  the  walls  of  the  intestines. 

"  For  the  elimination  of  the  ptomaines  which  have  been  ab- 
sorbed into  the  circulation  and  carried  to  the  tissues,  nothing  is 
better  than  the  internal  use  of  water.  From  three  to  five  pints 
should  be  drunk  during  every  twenty-four  hours.  It  should  be 
taken  in  small  quantities — six  to  eight  ounces  every  hour  or  two 
during  waking  hours,  except  when  food  is  taken.  I  will  refer 
to  this  point  more  in  detail  later. 

"  A  consideration  of  the  general  care  of  the  patient  properly 
comes  under  the  second  head  of  the  indications  for  treatment  as 
given  above.  The  patient  should  be  put  to  bed  in  a  large,  light, 
well-ventilated  room.  At  least  two  sides  of  the  room  should 
communi'cate  directly  by  windows  with  out-of-doors,  in  order 
that  the  room  may  be  properly  ventilated. 

"  All  unnecessary  articles  of  furniture,  such  as  carpets, 
couches,  upholstered  chairs,  pictures,  etc.  should   be  removed. 

"  The  room  should  be  thoroughly  cleaned  before  the  patient 
is  put  into  it. 

"  There  should  be  two  beds  in  the  room  for  the  use  of  the 
patient.  These  should  be,  preferably,  narrow  and  so  placed  in 
the  room  that  there  is  a  free  approach  to  both  sides  of  the  bed, 
for  the  convenience  of  the  nurse  in  giving  treatment.  Iron  bed- 
steads are  preferable  to  wooden.  The  bedding  should  be  firm, 
yet  soft  and  smoothly  drawn.  There  should  be  just  sufficient 
covering  to  protect  the  body.  The  patient  should  be  changed 
from  one  bed  to  the  other  daily.  This  may  be  done  by  placing 
the  two  beds  side  by  side  and  carefully  moving  the  patient 
from  one  to  the  other.  The  sheets  on  the  bed  from  which  the 
patient  has  been  taken  should   be  washed  and  disinfected  at 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  225 

each  change  of  the  beds,  and  all  other  bedding  should  be  thor- 
oughly aired  and  exposed  to  the  sunlight  daily. 

"  The  patient  should  have  the  care  of  a  thoroughly  educated, 
careful  and  competent  nurse,  one  who  understands  perfectly 
the  various  methods  of  using  water  in  the  treatment  of  fevers. 

"  There  is  no  other  single  remedy  that  I  consider  so  valuable 
in  the  treatment  of  fever  as  the  internal  use  of  water.  As 
above  stated,  the  patient  should  drink  six  or  eight  ounces  every 
hour  during  the  waking  hours,  except  for  about  two  hours  after 
food  is  taken.  The  water  should  be  thoroughly  sterilized,  and 
as  a  rule  may  be  taken  either  cool  or  hot.  Ice  water  is  objec- 
tionable. Hot  water  is  often  preferable.  This  is  a  simple 
remedy,  but  nevertheless  is  efficacious.  It  should  be  given  to 
the  patient  whether  he  calls  for  it  or  not,  and  it  should  be  con- 
sidered an  important  part  of  his  treatment.  When  water  is 
taken  into  the  stomach  and  absorbed  into  the  circulation,  it 
throws  into  solution  the  ptomaines  which  have  been  absorbed 
from  the  intestines  and  are  present  in  the  circulation  and  tissues, 
and  thereby  puts  them  in  a  favorable  condition  for  elimination. 
It  increases  the  activity  of  the  kidneys,  and  thus  hastens  and 
increases  the  elimination  of  the  poisons  in  the  system. 

"In  the  early  stage  of  the  fever,  when  the  pulse  is  full,  and 
the  action  of  the  heart  increased,  it  is  best  to  give  the  patient 
cool  water.  Later  in  the  disease,  when  the  action  of  the  heart 
is  weak,  and  the  patient  feeble,  it  is  best  to  give  the  water  hot. 

"  Winternitz,  many  years  ago,  demonstrated  that  hot  water 
taken  into  the  stomach  acts  as  a  cardiac  stimulant,  and  the  in- 
creased heart's  action  is  immediate,  or  at  least  before  the  water 
has  time  to  absorb,  which  indicates  that  the  water  in  the  stom- 
ach acts  reflexly  as  a  cardiac  stimulant.  The  water  after  ab- 
sorption also  increases  the  circulation  by  filling  the  blood-vessels, 
and  increasing  arterial  pressure.  The  writer  has  frequently 
noticed  a  decided  increase  in  the  fullness,  and  rapidity  of  the 
pulse,  after  a  patient  has  drunk  a  glassful  of  hot  water. 


226  ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE. 

"  The  external  use  of  water  also  forms  an  important  part  of 
the  treatment.  The  patient  should  be  sponged  off  with  tepid 
water  every  hour  or  two  when  the  temperature  is  1030,  or  above. 
When  the  temperature  is  less  than  this,  it  is  not  necessary  to 
sponge  the  body  so  frequently.  Sometimes  a  hot  sponge  bath 
is  more  efficacious  in  reducing  the  temperature  than  the  tepid 
or  cool  bath.  The  sponge  bath  reduces  the  temperature,  re- 
lieves many  of  the  distressing  nervous  symptoms,  is  refreshing 
to  the  patient,  and  promotes  sleep.  The  temperature  of  the 
body  may  also  be  reduced  by  the  use  of  cool  compresses  placed 
over  the  abdomen,  and  changed  frequently. 

"  The  matter  of  diet  is  an  important  factor  in  the  treatment 
of  typhoid  fever.  The  diet  should  be  aseptic,  easily  digested, 
and  should  contain  the  necessary  food  elements.  Probably  no 
one  article  of  diet  meets  all  these  requirements  as  well  as 
sterilized  milk.  The  patient  should  take  from  two  to  three 
pints  daily.  The  milk  is  best  taken  four  times  during  the  day 
at  intervals  of  four  hours,  taking  eight  to  ten  ounces  at  a  time. 
Should  the  patient  become  tired  of  the  milk,  gluten  gruel  may 
be  substituted  for  the  milk. 

"  The  diarrhoea  and  bowel  symptoms,  when  present,  may  be 
relieved  by  the  application  of  hot  fomentations  to  the  abdomen, 
warm  or  hot  enemas  and  twenty  grains  of  subnitrate  of  bis- 
muth given  every  four  hours. 

"  The  patient  should  be  kept  as  quiet  as  possible,  and  should 
be  turned  in  bed  at  intervals,  to  prevent  hypostatic  congestion 
and  the  formation  of  bed-sores.  The  bony  prominences  which 
are  apt  to  become  eroded  should  be  sponged  frequently  with  a 
solution  of  tannic  acid  in  equal  parts  of  alcohol  and  water ; 
a  dram  of  the  tannic  acid  to  a  pint  of  alcohol  and  water,  is 
about  the  proper  strength  to  use. 

By  the  methods  briefly  outlined  above — that  is  by  the  free 
use  of  water  internally  and  externally,  by  keeping  the  intestines 
thoroughly   emptied   of   poisonous   material   by  the   free    and 


ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE.  ,  227 

frequent  use  of  enemas,  by  proper  feeding  and  the  careful 
attention  of  a  good  nurse  to  the  patient  and  his  surroundings 
— the  duration  of  the  fever  may  be  shortened  and  the  severity 
of  the  disease  lessened ;  heart  failure,  and  other  complications 
will  seldom  occur,  and  the  patient  will  in  nearly  every  instance 
make  a  good  recovery.  The  best  method  to  pursue  to  prevent 
heart  failure  is  to  keep  the  poisons  which  are  generated  in  the 
bowels  and  absorbed  into  the  body,  and  which  are  the 
direct  cause  of  the  heart  failure,  eliminated  from  the  body. 
Should  the  heart  become  weak,  it  may  be  effectually  stimulated 
by  giving  hot  water  to  drink,  applying  heat  to  the  heart  in  the 
form  of  a  fomentation,  and  the  application  of  fomentations  to 
the  upper  spine. 

"  In  the  treatment  of  a  large  number  of  cases  of  typhoid  fever, 
extending  over  several  years'  practice,  the  writer  has  never 
made  use  of  alcohol  internally  to  support  the  action  of  the 
heart,  or  for  any  other  purpose. 

"  The  number  of  cases  of  death  from  typhoid  fever  coming 
under  the  writer's  observation,  where  the  method  of  treatment 
pursued  has  been  similar  to  that  briefly  indicated  above,  have 
been  very  few,  a  much  smaller  per  cent,  than  in  practice  where 
alcohol  has  been  used  as  a  '  cardiac  stimulant.'  I  believe  that 
the  use  of  alcohol  in  the  treatment  of  typhoid  fever  is  not  only 
useless,  but  absolutely  harmful." 

Dr.  Kate  Lindsay,  of  Battle  Creek  Sanitarium  and 
Hospital,  contributed  an  article  upon  Typhoid  Fever 
to  the  Bulletin  of  the  A.  M.  T.  A.  for  January, 
1896,  from  which  a  few  notes  are  here  taken  : — 

"The  chief  toxic  centre  is  evidently  the  intestinal  tract, 
especially  the  termination  of  the  ileum.  The  ulcerations, 
necroses,  perforations  and  hemorrhages  are  most  frequently 
found  in  the  last  twelve  inches  of  the  small  intestine,  and  may 
extend  into  the  large  intestine.  The  ulcerated  surface  and 
open  vessels  increase  the  facility  with  which  the  poison  finds 


228  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

entrance  into  the  circulation.  The  microbes,  blood  clots, 
necrosed  tissue  and  pus,  furnish  abundant  supplies  of  toxic 
matter,  which,  saturating  the  system,  over-power  and  stop  the 
activity  of  the  functions  of  all  the  organs  of  the  body,  causing 
degeneration  of  tissues.  Death  is  said  to  take  place  from 
heart,  lung  or  brain  failure,  but  the  failure  involves  every  other 
organ  as  well. 

"  Regarding  the  intestinal  tract  as  any  other  abscess  at  this 
time,  the  physician  should  seek  for  methods  of  treatment 
or  remedies  which  will  remove  the  morbid  matters,  and 
destroy,  or  at  least  inhibit  their  action,  thus  decreasing  the 
fever  and  stimulating  the  circulation.  Secondary  toxic  centres 
often  develop  in  the  course  of  this  disease,  notably  in  the 
glands,  lungs  and  dependent  organs,  the  hypostatic  congestion 
resulting  from  lying  in  one  position,  causing  stasis  of  blood, 
death  and  necrosis  of  tissue,  both  of  the  external  and  internal 
organs.  All  vessels  connected  with  the  dying  tissues  carry 
toxins  to  other  parts  of  the  body.  Suppurating  glands,  and  phle- 
bitis of  the  femoral  veins  are  examples  of  this  secondary  infect- 
ion, and  are  accountable  for  the  heart  failure  and  collapse  so 
often  fatal  during  the  second,  third  and  fourth  weeks  of  typhoid, 
fever  '  **  '  * 

"  The  old  idea  that  in  peristaltic  action  lay  the  great  danger  of 
increase  of  the  hemorrhage  and  perforation  of  the  bowels,  is 
giving  way  to  the  more  rational  view  that  gaseous  distention 
and  septic  absorption,  are  what  bring  about  fatal  results  from 
these  complications,  and  that  the  moderate  peristalsis  of  the 
intestinal  walls  lessens  these  dangers  by  closing  the  gaping  ends 
of  the  injured  vessels,  and  expelling  the  septic  matter  and  foul 
gases.  To  meet  these  indications  I  have  found  lavage  of  the 
bowels,  even  during  hemorrhage,  with  water  of  1050  to  no°  F. 
or  even  hotter,  given  in  moderate  quantity  of  from  one  pint  to 
three,  to  give  great  relief  by  freeing  the  large  intestines  of  blood 
clots,  fecal  matter  and  other  morbid  matter.  It  also  increases 
peristaltic  action  in  the  small  intestines,  thus  favoring  the  expul- 


ALCOHOL   AS   A   MEDICINE.  229 

sion  of  gas.  The  heat  stimulates  the  circulation  in  the  periph- 
eral vessels  of  the  intestines,  and  overcomes  the  tendency,  to 
blood  stasis. 

"In  the  cases  cited,  ice-bags,  alternated  with  fomentations, 
were  used  over  the  abdomen  externally,  and  heat,  or  hot  and 
cold,  to  spine.  The  extremities  were  kept  warm.  From  ten  to 
thirty  minims  of  turpentine,  in  an  ounce  of  gum  acacia  or  starch 
water,  increased  the  efficiency  of  the  enemata,  and  aided  in  ex- 
pelling the  gas  and  checking  hemorrhage. 

"  The  tendency  to  hypostatic  congestion  and  bed-sores,  was 
prevented  by  frequent  change  of  position,  and  the  use  of  hot  and 
cold  to  the  spine  by  fomentations  and  compresses,  or  better 
still,  hot  fine  spraying,  or  the  alternate  hot  and  cold  spray.  In 
one  grave  case,  spraying  was  kept  up  for  about  twelve  hours, 
with  only  short  intermissions.  The  heart  was  stimulated  by 
heat  applied  over  it,  whenever  depression  and  collapse  threat- 
ened, and  by  hot  and  cold  sponging  of  the  spine." 

Dr.  Noble  said  some  time,  ago  in  the  London 
Times : — 

"  Although  it  is  true  that  alcohol  is  an  antipyretic,  yet  its  ex- 
hibition neither  shortens  nor  modifies  (favorably)  the  diseases 
of  which  the  fever  is  but  a  symptom.  The  paralysis  of  the 
brain  which  is  so  frequent  a  cause  of  death  in  typhoid  fever,  is 
more  often  brought  about  by  alcohol  than  any  other  cause,  and 
more  than  one  woman  suffering  from  puerperal  fever  has  been 
done  to  death  by  the  administration  of  this  substance,  which, 
not  being  convenient er  naturae,  is  contra  naturam." 

J.  S.  Cain,  M.  D.,  in  an  able  paper,  read  at  the 
Nashville  Academy  of  Medicine,  on  "  Rational  Sug- 
gestions in  the  Treatment  of  Typhoid  Fever,"  dis- 
sents from  the  practice,  which  still  obtains  largely 
in  the  medical  profession,  of  administering  alcoholic 


230  ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE. 

liquors,  in  the  belief  that  they  are  "stimulants,  con- 
servators of  force  and  even  nutrients,"  and  says : — 

"  After  a  careful  and  thoughtful  study  of  this  subject,  I  have 
reluctantly,  and  against  firm  early  convictions,  been  forced  to  the 
conclusion  that  these  theories  with  regard  to  the  beneficial  ef- 
fects of  alcohol  in  disease  are  wholly  fallacious.  The  only  ra- 
tional conclusion  at  which  I  can  arrive  is  that  the  agent  is  ever, 
and  under  all  circumstances,  a  depressor  of  temperature  ;  that 
it  arrests  the  physiological  interchange  of  carbonic  acid  gas  and 
oxygen  in  the  tissues,  as  well  as  in  the  air  vesicles  of  the 
lungs  ;  that  it  impedes  the  elimination  of  tissue  waste,  and 
causes  the  accumulation  of  this  refuse  in  the  system  ;  that  it  is 
lethal  anaesthetic  in  all  quantities  ;  that  it  is  not  stimulant  in  the 
true  sense,  and  never  exerts  that  influence  ;  and  that  it  supplies 
no  element  to  the  diseased  and  vitiated  system  calculated  to 
antagonize  disease,  repair  waste,  or  invigorate  lowered  vital 
forces,  and  therefore  for  these  purposes  is  not  called  for  in  the 
rational  treatment  of  typhoid  fever." 

At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  American  Medical 
Association  held  in  Atlanta,  Georgia,  in  1896,  Dr. 
G.  B.  Garber,  of  Dunkirk,  Ind.,  read  a  paper  upon 
"Alcohol  in  Typhoid  Fever  "  from  which  a  few 
points  are  here  taken  : — 

"  The  fact  that  the  mortality  from  typhoid  fever  seems  to  be 
gradually  lowering  is  no  doubt  due  in  great  measure  to  the 
.  non-use  of  alcohol  in  the  treatment  of  the  disease.  Hardly  a 
week  passes  that  some  of  our  journals  do  not  report  a  series  of 
cases  treated  without  the  aid  of  alcohol  in  any  form.  I  used 
alcohol  in  the 'treatment  of  the  disease  until  two  years  ago, 
when  I  became  alarmed  at  the  mortality;  so  I  changed  my 
plan,  and  in  1894  I  treated  thirty-seven  well  marked  cases  of 
varying  degrees  of  intensity.  I  had  two  fatal  cases,  and  in  both 
of  them  I  had  used  alcohol.     In  1895  I  treated  thirty  cases  of 


ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE.  23 1 

about  the  same  type,  with  no  death.  I  only  used  alcohoi  in 
one  of  them,  and  it  caused  me  more  trouble  than  any  of  the 
others.  As  this  case  was  in  the  family  of  a  saloon-keeper,  I 
could  not  control  the  matter,  as  they  would  give  it  during  my 
absence.  On  my  return  I  would  find  the  face  flushed,  the 
temperature  high,  the  pulse  rapid  and  the  patient  nervous. 
By  close  inquiry  I  would  find  that  some  of  the  family  had 
given  '  just  a  little  good  whisky  '  which  had  been  in  the  house 
for  twenty  years. 

"  In  closing,  I  wish  to  state  that  I  am  well  convinced  that  in 
the  treatment  of  typhoid  fever  our  patients  will  do  better  and 
stand  a  greater  chance  of  recovery,  if  we  abstain  entirely  from 
the  use  of  alcohol  in  the  treatment  of  the  disease." 

Prof.  J.  Burney  Yeo,  of  London,  in  a  paper  read 
before  the  International  Medical  Congress  held  at 
Rome,  Italy,  said  : — 

"  In  order  to  maintain  the  intestinal  antisepsis  which  forms 
an  essential  part  of  this  method  of  treatment,  I  insist  on  the 
necessity  of  scrupulous  attention  and  caution  in  feeding  patients 
suffering  from  enteric  fever,  great  danger  arising  from  a  failure 
to  note  the  extremely  limited  digestive  and  absorptive  capacity 
exhibited  by  such  patients. 

"  In  conclusion,  the  use  of  alcoholic  stimulants,  and  the 
common  employment  of  depressing  antipyretic  agents,  must  be 
condemned." 

In  a  report  of  the  treatment  of  typhoid  fever  by 
seventy-two  physicians  of  Connecticut,  thirty-eight 
declared  that  they  did  not  use  alcohol  in  any  stage 
of  this  disease.  The  remainder  used  it  sparingly  in 
the  last  stages,  and  only  two  considered  it  valuable 
from  the  beginning  of  the  disease. 

In  a  discussion  of  typhoid    fever   by  a    medical 


232  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

society  meeting  in  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  recently,  sixty 
physicians  being  present,  only  three  spoke  in  favor 
of  using  alcohol  in  this  disease. 

Hygienic  physicians  all  insist  upon  a  rigid  fast  as 
long  as  the  high  temperature  continues,  or  until  the 
patient  is  sufficiently  hungry  to  eat  a  piece  of  plain, 
stale,  graham  bread,  "  dry  upon  the  tongue."  Dr. 
Charles  E.  Page  of  Boston  says  there  would  be 
very  few  relapses  if  this  plan  were  carefully  carried 
out.  He  contends  that  the  whisky  and  milk  diet, 
together  with  the  not  over-fresh  air  of  the  average 
sick  room  is  enough  to  produce  fever  in  a  healthy 
person,  hence  is  not  likely  to  be  conducive  to  re- 
covery in  one  already  infected  with  the  disease. 

In  an  article  in  the  Arena  of  September,  1892,  Dr. 
Page  says  : — 

"  In  my  fever  practice  I  have  frequently  observed  the  effect 
of  fasts  of  six,  eight,  ten  and  twelve  days  to  be  in  the  highest 
degree  productive  of  the  health  and  comfort  of  patients,  as,  on 
the  other  hand  I  have,  during  the  past  twenty  years  observed 
the  deplorable  effects  of  the  almost  universal  plan  of  constant 
feeding.  In  some  of  the  most  distressing  cases  that  have 
happened  to  be  thrown  in  my  way,  when  all  hope  in  the  minds 
of  friends  had  been  abandoned,  I  have  found  that  withdrawal  of 
food,  drugs  and  stimulants,  and  the  substitution  of  simple,  fresh, 
soft  water,  has  produced  results  that  seemed  almost  miracu- 
lous." 

Fruit  juices  are  now  permitted  by  many  physi- 
cians in  fever,  a  few  drops  of  lemon  or  orange 
juice,  being  a  grateful  addition  to  the  water.  Grape 
juice,  unfermented,  is  highly  recommended  by  some. 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  23$ 

A  young  minister  of  great  promise  died  recently 
of  typhoid  fever.  His  young  wife,  only  one  year 
married,  is  in  settled  melancholy,  because  she  cannot 
understand  why  "  God  took  her  husband."  Inquiry 
developed  the  fact  that  the  physician  in  attendance 
was  a  believer  in  alcohol  as  a  remedy,  and  used  it 
in  this  case.  In  view  of  the  better  chances  of 
recovery  under  non-alcoholic  treatment  shown  by 
comparative  death-rates,  may  it  not  be  that  the 
alcohol  was  responsible  for  the  young  man's  death, 
instead  of  its  being  "  God's  will  to  take  him  ?  " 
The  Author  of  all  good  has  too  frequently  been 
held  responsible  for  the  errors  of  physicians,  and 
the  carelessness  of  nurses. 

Vomiting  :— "  If  the  vomiting  is  due  to  undigested  food, 
and  the  sickness  can  be  traced  to  excess,  or  to  improper  diet, 
draughts  of  hot  water  should  be  taken  in  order  to  be  rid  of 
offending  matter  in  the  stomach.  After  the  stomach  is  empty- 
bits  of  ice  may  be  sucked,  or  cold  water  sipped.  A  quarter  of 
a  Seidlitz  powder  may  be  taken.  A  flannel,  folded  to  four 
thicknesses,  dipped  in  hot  water,  and  wrung  dry  in  a  towel, 
may  be  applied  to  the  pit  of  the  stomach.  Cover  the  flannel 
with  a  hot  plate,  being  careful  to  have  the  flannel  large  enough 
to  prevent  the  plate's  burning  the  skin.  Pin  a  dry  towel  over 
all,  around  the  body.  This  may  be  renewed  every  half-hour  or 
hour,  as  required.  Sometimes  a  cold  wet  compress  on  the  pit 
of  the  stomach,  covered  with  a  dry  towel  is  more  efficacious, 
heat  developing  by  reaction.  Fluid  magnesia  is  often  helpful." 
— Dr.  Ridge. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

ALCOHOL  AND   NURSING   MOTHERS.  i 

It  frequently  happens  that  the  nursing  mother 
is  unable  by  reason  of  defective  digestive  apparatus, 
or  imperfect  assimilative  powers,  to  supply  suffi- 
cient nourishment  for  her  babe.  In  such  case  she 
is  often  advised  to  drink  ale  or  beer.  It  is  true 
that  these  liquors  will  excite  the  secretions  of  the 
mammary  gland,  but  it  is  increase  in  quantity,  not 
in  quality,  for  the  milk  is  impoverished  by  the  ad- 
ded water  and  alcohol,  taken  in  the  beer.  Milkmen 
sometimes  salt  cows  heavily  so  that  they  will  drink 
largely  of  water,  and  thus  give  more  milk,  but  one 
quart  of  good,  rich  milk  is  worth  three  quarts  of  the 
poor,  thin  stuff  resulting  from  such  method.  It  is 
proper  feeding,  and  care,  that  ensure  good  milk. 

When.women  complain  that  they  are  unable  to 
nurse  their  babies  the  cause  is  often  an  error  in 
diet.  Too  great  reliance  is  put  upon  meat  as 
strength-giving.  While  meat,  used  in  moderation, 
may  be  valuable  to  many  persons,  the  nursing 
mother  should  not  depend  upon  it  to  any  great  ex- 
tent. She  will  find  farinaceous  foods,  with  plenty 
of  warm  milk,  what  she  most  requires.  At  bed- 
234 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  235 

time  she  should  have  a  bowl  of  well-cooked  oat- 
meal gruel,  diluted  with  rich  milk,  and  sweetened, 
if  she  prefer  it  so.  The  milk  should  be  added  to 
the  gruel  while  it  is  boiling,  as  it  digests  more  read- 
ily if  scalded.  People  who  cannot,  or  think  they 
cannot,  take  milk  of  itself,  often  find  it  easy  to  di- 
gest it,  after  it  is  scalded  in  the  gruel.  Anything 
that  a  mother  can  do  in  the  way  of  nourishing  her 
babe  will  be  done  upon  such  a  diet,  that  is,  farina- 
ceous foods  and  milk.  Sweet  fruits  are  of  course 
valuable  also,  as  tending  to  keep  the  system  in 
good  order. 

It  is  well  to  bear  in  mind  that  it  is  not  the  quan- 
tity of  food  eaten,  but  that  which  is  digested,  and 
assimilated,  that  goes  to  build  up  the  tissues  of  the 
body.  So  the  habit  of  eating  between  meals  is 
pernicious,  as  it  disturbs  the  digestive  processes, 
and  robs  the  stomach  of  much-needed  rest.  This 
habit  is  the  cause,  in  many  cases,  of  the  falling  off 
in  the  milk  after  the  first  month  or  two. 

As  nourishment  for  both  mother  and  babe  can 
come  from  food  only,  good  appetite,  and  good  di- 
gestion are  essential  to  health  and  strength.  The 
very  best  help  towards  gaining  a  good  appetite  is 
exercise  in  the  open  air.  All  mothers  recognize 
the  need  of  keeping  their  little  ones  out  of  doors  a 
while  every  day,  but  all  do  not  see  the  necessity  of 
the  same  mode  of  life  for  themselves.  Dr.  Nathan 
S.  Davis  has  said  :  "  I  have  persuaded  thousands  of 
mothers  to  try  fresh  air,  instead  of  \vi     •   or  beer, 


236     .  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

with  gratifying  results."  The  mother  who  takes 
her  babe  out,  herself,  for  its  daily  airing,  is  laying 
up  stores  of  health  and  vitality,  to  aid  her  in  provid-. 
ing  for  the  needs  of  the  little  one,  dependent  upon 
her. 

Good  digestion  is  as  essential  as  good  appetite. 
Alcohol,  whether  in  beer,  wine,  whisky,  or  any 
other  form,  is  injurious  to  the  stomach,  and  a  hin- 
derer  of  digestion,  hence  must  do  harm,  rather  than 
good,  to  the  mother  in  search  of  added  nourishment 
for  her  babe. 

Dr.  Condi  says  : — 

"  The  only  drink  of  the  nurse  should  be  water  or  milk.  All 
fermented  and  distilled  liquors,  as  well  as  strong  tea  and  coffee, 
she  should  strictly  abstain  from.  Never  was  there  a  more  ab- 
surd or  pernicious  notion  than  that  wine,  ale  or  porter  is  nec- 
essary to  a  nursing  mother  in  order  to  keep  up  her  strength,  or 
to  increase  the  quantity,  and  improve  the  properties  of  her  milk. 
So  far  from  producing  these  effects,  such  drinks,  when  taken  in 
any  quantity,  invariably  disturb  more  or  Jess  the  health  of  the 
stomach,  and  tend  to  impair  the  quality,  and  diminish  the  quan- 
tity, of  nourishment  furnished  by  her  to  her  infant." 

Dr.  William  Hargreaves  says  : — 

"  Every  farmer  knows  that  all  a  healthy  cow  requires  to  give 
good  milk  and  butter  is,  to  give  her  good  feed,  and  pure  water; 
and  he  also  knows  that  the  way  to  make  a  cow  give  poor 
watery  milk,  which  they  might  churn  until  doomsday  without 
obtaining  butter,  is  to  feed  her  on  distillery  slops,  or  grains 
from  the  brewery.  It  is  also  well  known  that  cheese  cannot  be 
made  from  such  milk,  it  being  deficient  in  curd,  or  casein. 

"  Alcohol   is   not  only  useless   but  injurious ;   for  children 


ALCOHOL  AS  A  MEDICINE.  237 

whose  mothers  try  to  keep  themselves  upon  beer,  etc.,  very 
frequently  suffer  from  vomiting  and  diarrhoea,  and  often  from 
convulsions.  Sometimes  a  single  glass  of  whisky,  taken  by  the 
mother,  will  produce  sickness  and  indigestion  in  the  child,  for 
twenty-four  hours  after. 

"  In  the  milk  of  a  healthy  woman  the  water  ranges  from  879 
to  905  parts  in  1,000.  The  oily  substance  ranges  from  25  to 
42  ;  casein  from  15  to  39;  sugar  of  milk  from  31  to  45,  and  the 
salts  from  1  to  4  parts  in  1,000. 

"  Alcoholic  drinks  materially  alter  these  proportions,  for,  on 
the  analysis  of  the  milk  of  the  same  woman,  a  few  hours  before 
and  after  the  use  of  a  pint  of  beer,  it  was  found  that  the  alcohol 
increases  the  proportion  of  the  water,  and  diminishes  that  of 
casein  ;  and  that  alcohol  is  very  perceptible  in  it." 

"  The  only  rational  way  to  be  adopted  by  mothers  to  increase 
the  supply  of  nutrition  for  their  infants,  is  to  secure  plenty  of 
suitable  nutritious  food,  prepared  in  the  way  that  will  most  fit 
it  for  digestion,  while  they  at  the  same  time,  avoid  as  far  as 
possible  all  fatigue,  and  mental  excitement.  It  is  impossible 
that  alcoholic  beverages  can  add  anything  to  the  nutrition  of 
either  the  infant  or  mother." — Dr.  Bussey,  in  Stimulants  for 
Nursing  Mothers. 

Dr.  E.  G.  Figg,  in  The  Physiological  Operation  of 
Alcohol,  gives  the  analyses  of  the  milk  of  a  temper- 
I  ate  woman  in  good  health,  and  of  a  drinking  wo- 
'  man  as  follows  : — 

Milk  of  temperate  mother.  Milk  of  drinking  mother. 

Salts,        "        "        8.50  Salts,         •«        "        5.50 

Casein,      "        "        3.0  Casein,      "        "       2.0 

Oil,  "        "        7.50  Oil,  "        "        6.5 

Water,      "        "      81.0  Water,      "        "      84,0 

Alcohol,    "        "        2.0 


238  ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE. 

Dr.  Edward  Smith  says  in  his  Practical  Dietary  : — 

"  Alcoholics  are  largely  used  by  many  women  in  the  belief 
that  they  support  the  system,  and  maintain  the  supply  of  milk 
for  the  infant ;  but  I  am  convinced  that  this  is  a  serious  error, 
and  is  not  an  infrequent  cause  of  fits  and  emaciation  in  the 
child." 

Dr.  James  Edmunds,  of  the  Lying-in  Hospital, 
London,  Eng.,  says  in  Diet  for  Ntirsing  Mothers  : — 

"  The  nursing  mother  is  peculiarly  placed,  in  that  she  has  to 
provide  a  supply  of  nutriment  for  the  child  which  is  dependent 
upon  her,  as  well  as  for  the  ordinary  requirements  of  her  own 
system.  The  nutrition  of  the  child  is  to  be  provided  for  upon 
the  same  principles,  and  by  the  same  food-elements,  as  is  the 
nutrition  of  the  mother,  the  only  difference  being  that  the 
young  child  is  possessed  of  less  perfect  masticatory  and  diges- 
tive powers,  and  therefore  requires  food  to  be  presented  to  it 
in  a  state  more  simple,  uniform,  and  readily  assimilable  than 
the  adult,  who  is  furnished  with  strong  teeth,  and  possessed  of 
a  fully-grown  stomach.  The  mastication,  digestion,  and  primary 
assimilation  of  the  nursing  infant's  food  is  thrown  upon  the 
mother's  organs ;  but  the  tissues  of  the  child  are  nourished  pre- 
cisely as  are  the  tissues  of  the  mother,  and  a  nursing  mother 
requires  simply  to  digest  a  larger  supply  of  wholesome,  and 
appropriate  food.  As  a  matter  of  course  mothers  with  imper- 
fect teeth,  or  weak  stomachs,  cannot  perform  the  digestion  of 
extra  food  for  the  infant  so  well  as  those  mothers  who  have 
an  abundance  of  reserve  power  in  their  digestive  apparatus  ; 
and  with  such  patients,  the  question  arises,  how  are  they  to 
make  up  for  the  deficiency  which  they  soon  experience  in  the 
the  supply  of  milk?  Such  mothers  appeal  to  their  medical 
advisers  to  prescribe  some  stimulant  which  will  enable  them  to 
overcome  the  difficulty  which  they  experience,  and  often  are 
greatly  dissatisfied  if  informed  that  there  is  no  drug  in  the 
materia  medic  a  which  will  make  up  for  structural  weakness  in 


ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE.  239 

the  organs  which  masticate,  digest  or  assimilate  the  food. 
The  proper  course  for  such  women  to  adopt  is  a  simple  and 
rational  one.  They  should  assist  their  digestive  apparatus  as 
much  as  possible  by  securing  an  abundance  of  suitable  and 
nutritious  food,  prepared  in  the  best  way,  and  as  is  most  digest- 
ible, while  they  should  lessen  the  demands  of  their  own  system 
by  the  avoidance  of  bodily  fatigue,  and  mental  excitement. 
These  means,  aided  by  that  philosophical  hygiene  which  is  at 
all  times  essential  to  the  preservation  of  pure  and  perfect 
health,  will  enable  them  to  supply  a  maximum  quantity  of  pure 
and  wholesome  milk  ;  and  further  calls  by  the  child  require 
proper  artificial  food.  Unfortunately  such  advice  fails  to 
satisfy  many  anxious  mothers  who  refuse  to  admit,  or  believe, 
that  they  are  less  robust,  or  less  capable,  than  other  ladies  of 
their  acquaintance,  and  such  mothers  fall  easy  victims  to  circu- 
lars vaunting  the  nourishing  properties  of.  •  Hoare's  Stout,' 
'  Tanqueray's  Gin,'  or  Gilbey's  *  strengthening  Port,'  circulars 
which  are  always  backed  up  by  the  example,  and  advice,  of 
lady  friends,  who  themselves  have  acquired  the  habit  of  using 
these  liquors,  and  who  view  as  a  reproach  to  themselves  the 
practice  of  any  other  lady  who  may  not  keep  them  in  counte- 
nance, as  the  perfection  of  all  moral  and  physical  propriety. 
Unfortunately  the  pressure  of  such  lady  friends  is  often  so 
persistent  as  to  paralyse  the  influence  of  a  conscientious  and 
thoughtful  medical  adviser,  while  the  appetites  and  beliefs  of 
such  friends  often  throw  them  into  active  antagonism  to  any 
medical  adviser,  who  may  not  endorse  the  habits  in  which,  as 
they  believe,  and  no  doubt  conscientiously,  duty  to  their  child 
requires  them  to  indulge.  The  only  course  that  a  medical 
practitioner,  whose  family  is  dependent  upon  his  practice,  can 
safely  take  with  veteran  mothers  on  this  question,  is  to  let  them 
have  their  own  way  without  reiterated  admonition.  When 
once  they  have  acquired  the  habit  of  depending  upon  large 
quantities  of  beer  for  nursing  their  children,  they  become  per- 
fectly infatuated,  and  are  practically  incapable  of  passing 
through  the  probationary  fortnight  which  takes  place  before 


24O  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

the  digestive  apparatus  can  work  under  its  natural,  but  to  them 
strange,  conditions,  while  the  temporary  longing  for  beer,  and 
the  sudden  lessening  of  the  quantity  of  milk  afforded  by  their 
strained  and  impoverished  systems,  are  at  once  set  down  as  clear 
proofs  that  their  medical  adviser  is  a  crochetty,  and  dangerous 
person,  who  must  be  superseded  at  the  first  convenient  oppor- 
tunity. Facts  and  arguments  have  no  more  influence  on  such 
mothers  than  they  have  upon  opium-eaters,  drunkards,  or 
inveterate  consumers  of  tobacco ;  while  the  extreme  propriety 
of  conduct  which  these  ladies  manifest,  and  the  encouragement 
they  receive  from  other  medical  men,  make  the  convictions 
based  upon  their  own  personal  sensations  incontrovertible,  and 
their  position  practically  unassailable.  I  think  I  might  fairly  say 
that  among  the  comfortable  middle  classes  of  society  the  views 
at  present  held  on  this  question  are  so  deplorable  that  a  large 
proportion  of  children  are  never  sober  from  the  first  moment  of 
their  existence  until  they  have  been  weaned  ;  while  often  after  a 
few  years  the  use  of  alcohol  is  again  introduced  to  the  children 
as  a  '  medical  comfort,'  as  a  part  of  their  regular  diet,  or  as  an 
invariable  accompaniment  of  all  their  juvenile  visitation,  and 
company-keeping.  Under  such  circumstances,  it  is  not  sur- 
prising that  temperance  reformers  appeal  in  vain  on  this  ques- 
tion, and  that  their  facts  and  arguments  are  viewed  with 
plausible  indifference,  or  insidious  opposition,  by  persons  whose 
appetites  and  instincts  have  been  undergoing  debasement,  and 
perversion  from  the  very  dawn  of  their  lives.  My  own  deliber- 
ate conviction  is  that  nothing  but  harm  comes  to  nursing 
mothers,  and  to  the  infants  who  are  dependent  upon  them,  by 
the  ordinary  use  of  alcoholic  beverages  of  any  kind. 

"  Infants  nursed  by  mothers  who  drink  much  beer  also  be- 
come fatter  than  usual,  and  to  an  untrained  eye  sometimes  ap- 
pear as  '  magnificent  children.'  But  the  fatness  of  such  children 
is  not  a  recommendation  to  the  more  knowing  observer ;  they 
are  extremely  prone  to  die  of  inflammation  of  the  chest  (bron- 
chitis) after  a  few  days'  illness  from  an  ordinary  cold.    They 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  24I 

die,  very  much  more  frequently  than  other  children,  of  convul- 
sions and  diarrhoea,  while  cutting  their  teeth,  and  they  are  very 
liable  to  die  of  scrofulous  inflammation  of  the  membranes  of  the 
brain,  commonly  called  '  water  on  the  brain,'  while  their  child- 
hood often  presents  a  painful  contrast — in  the  way  of  crooked 
legs,  and  stunted  or  ill-shapen  figure — to  the  '  magnificent,'  and 
promising  appearance  of  their  infancy. 

"Those  ladies  who  adopt  the  general  views  I  have  thus 
expressed  in  relation  to  the  nursing  of  their  children,  will 
want  to  know  what  is  the  '  proper  artificial  food '  with  which 
to  supplement  their  milk  when  it  is  deficient  in  quantity.  With 
some  patients  the  milk  will  fall  off  in  quantity  at  the  end  of  two 
or  three  months.  With  others,  although  the  quantity  may  not 
fall  off,  the  child  seems  unsatisfied ;  and  there  is  a  third  class 
with  whom  a  profusion  of  milk  is  supplied,  and  the  child  thrives 
exceedingly,  but  the  mother  gets  flabby,  weak,  nervous,  pale  and 
exhausted.  In  the  last  case,  the  mother  is  simply  goaded  on 
by  susceptibility  of  her  nervous  system,  or  by  inordinate  activity 
of  the  breasts  to  yield  an  amount  of  milk  which  her  digestive 
powers  are  not  equal  to  providing  for.  The  treatment  of  such 
cases  should  be  simply  repressive.  The  mother  should  separate 
herself  somewhat  more  from  the  child,  and  make  a  rule  of  only 
nursing  it  from  five  to  eight  times  in  the  twenty-four  hours, 
while  the  neck  of  the  mother  should  be  kept  cool  in  regard  to 
dress,  and  cold  sponging  may  be  practiced  carefully  night  and 
morning.  Her  attention  should  be  diverted  by  outdoor  exer- 
cise on  foot,  and  additionally  in  a  carriage  if  necessary.  When 
the  mother's  milk,  though  apparently  not  deficient  in  quantity, 
proves  unsatisfying  to  the  child,  great  attention  should  be  paid 
to  varying  the  diet  of  the  mother,  while  such  staple  foods  should 
be  taken  as  are  most  easily  and  thoroughly  assimilated  into  milk. 
The  unsatisfying  quality  of  the  milk  will  generally  be  remedied 
by  taking  a  more  varied  diet,  together  with  three  or  four  half 
pints  of  milk  in  the  course  of  the  day,  accompanied  with  farina- 
ceous matter,  as  in  the  shape  of  well-made  milk  gruel ;  and  in 


242  ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE. 

case  these  measures  fail,  the  only  alternative  is  to  supplement 
the  mother's  milk  by  obtaining  a  wet-nurse  to  suckle  the  child 
three  or  four  times  a  day  alternately  with  the  mother,  or  by 
feeding  the  child  with  proper  artificial  food.  The  same  meas- 
ures may  be  resorted  to  where  the  milk,  though  satisfying  in 
character,  is  deficient  in  quantity;  and  in  preparing  artificial 
food  for  the  child  it  must  always  be  remembered  that  the  food 
requires  to  be  adapted  to  the  stage  of  development  which  is 
manifested  by  a  young  infant's  digestive  organs.  The  infant's 
digestive  apparatus  is,  in  fact,  designed  to  digest  milk,  and  to 
digest  nothing  else,  but  when  the  teeth  are  cut  farinaceous  mat- 
ter of  a  more  or  less  solid  character  should  be  gradually  mixed 
with  the  milk.  Almost  all  the  illnesses  of  infants  under  twelve 
months  of  age  are  caused  by  some  gross  impropriety  of  diet,  or 
otherwise,  on  the  part  of  the  mother,  for  which  the  child  suffers 
through  the  medium  of  the  milk,  or  they  are  caused  by  feeding 
the  child  with  improper  artificial  food.  Thick  sop,  and  many 
other  articles  often  given  as  food  are  as  indigestible  to  an  infant 
of  three  months  old  as  beefsteaks  would  be  to  a  horse  ;  and,  un- 
til the  child  has  cut  its  teeth,  it  should  have  nothing  but  food 
resembling  the  mother's  milk  as  closely  as  possible. 

"  The  proper  way  to  feed  an  infant  of  three  months  old, 
whose  mother  is  only  able  to  partially  support  it,  is  as  follows : 
When  the  child  wakes  in  the  morning  it  should  not  go  to  the 
mother,  but  should  be  taken  away  by  the  nurse,  and  immedi- 
ately fed  from  the  bottle,  sucking  its  milk  through  a  suitable 
teat.  After  the  mother  has  breakfasted  the  child  may  go  to  the 
breast,  and  during  the  day  it  should  be  alternately  fed  from  the 
bottle,  and  nursed  by  the  mother.  At  six  o'clock  the  baby 
should  invariably  be  placed  in  its  crib,  by  the  side  of  the  moth- 
er's bed,  and  fed  just  before  going  to  sleep,  and  the  habit  of 
going  to  bed  at  six  o'clock  should  be  strictly  and  invariably  en- 
forced. If  once  the  child  be  allowed  to  come  down  to  the  fam- 
ily circle  after  dark,  the  habit  of  going  to  sleep  will  be  broken, 
and  the  child  will  continuously  cry  to  come   down.     In  the 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  243 

course  of  the  evening  the  mother  may  nurse  the  child  once,  and 
at  ten  or  eleven  o'clock,  when  the  mother  goes  to  bed,  the  child 
should  be  again  fed  from  the  bottle,  and  the  mother  should  have 
a  basin  of  well-made  milk-gruel ;  and  by  her  bedside  should  be 
placed,  at  the  last  moment,  as  much  gruel  as  she  is  likely  to 
drink  with  relish  during  the  night.  Whenever  the  child  is 
restless  it  should  be  taken  out  of  its  crib,  gently,  by  the  mother, 
and  nursed,  say  two  or  three  times  during  the  night,  and  put 
back  again  into  its  crib,  the  child  never  being  allowed  to  sleep 
with  the  mother.  When  the  night  is  fairly  over,  and  the  child 
awakens,  it  should  be  fetched  by  the  nurse,  and  have  its  first 
morning  meal  from  the  bottle.  This  plan  of  feeding  should  be 
persisted  in  continuously  until  the  child  has  cut  its  teeth  ;  and  it 
is  only  when  every  means  have  been  taken  to  ensure  the  sweet- 
ness, freshness  and  niceness,  not  only  of  the  milk  and  water, 
but  of  the  bottle  and  of  the  teat,  and  the  child  still  fails  to  get 
on,  that,  in  rare  cases,  I  advise  the  admixture  of  a  little  farina- 
ceous matter,  in  the  way  of  food  containing  one  part  milk,  and 
two  parts  of  properly  sweetened  barley-water.  As  the  milk 
teeth  come  through,  other  farinaceous  matter  may  be  gradually 
blended  with  the  milk,  and  there  is  nothing  better  than  to  be- 
gin at  about  eight  months  with  a  teaspoonful  of  baked  flour, 
well  boiled  in  a  pint  of  milk  and  water,  or  in  the  water,  to  be 
afterwards  cooled  with  milk.  Oftentimes  a  little  salt,  as  well  as 
sugar,  will  materially  help  its  digestion.  The  child  will  do  well 
on  that  food— the  quantity  being  duly  increased— until  it  has 
cut  almost  all  its  milk  teeth,  when  it  may  eat  bread  and  butter, 
rice,  and  egg  puddings,  and  occasionally  eat  a  tfoiled  egg  once 
a  day.  I  believe  that  it  is  a  great  mistake  to  give  red  flesh  meat 
to  children  in  their  early  years,  unless  there  be  some  very  special 
reason  for  it,  and  then  it  should  only  be  temporarily  used  ;  but 
nice  potatoes,  flavored  with  fresh  gravy  from  a  joint,  may  be 
given  at  dinner,  as  the  child  becomes  able  to  feed  itself.  *  *  *  *  * 
"  Bear  in  mind  that  when  you  take  wine,  beer  or  brandy,  you 
are  distilling  that  wine,  beer  or  brandy  into  your  child's  body. 


244  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

Probably  nothing  could  be  .worse  than  to  have  the  very  fabric  of 
the  child's  tissues  laid  down  from  alcoholized  blood." 

Another  English  physician  deplores  "  the  perni- 
cious habit  of  drinking  large  quantities  of  ale  or  stout 
by  nursing  mothers,  under  the  idea  that  they  thereby 
increase  and  improve  the  secretion  of  milk,  whereas 
they  are  in  reality  deteriorating  the  quality  of  that 
upon  which  the  infant  must  depend  for  health  and 
life." 

Dr.  Edis  says  : — 

"  Infant  mortality  is  mainly  due  to  two  causes,  the  substitu- 
tion of  farinaceous  food  for  milk,  and  the  delusion  that  ale  or 
beer  is  necessary  as  an  article  of  diet  for  nursing  mothers.  ***** 
Countless  disorders  among  infants  are  due  simply  and  solely 
to  the  popular  fallacy,  that  the  nursing  mother  cannot  properly 
fulfil  her  duties,  unless  she  resorts  to  the  aid  of  alcoholics. " 

Dr.  N.  S.  Davis  says  : — 

"  The  opinion  prevails  quite  extensively  among  certain  classes 
of  people,  and  with  some  physicians,  that  a  liberal  use  of  beer 
is  beneficial  to  women  while  nursing  their  children.  They 
drink  it  under  the  impression  that  it  will  both  strengthen  them 
and  make  their  milk  more  abundant.  But  I  have  never  seen  a 
case  in  which  it  had  been  used  regularly  for  any  considerable 
period  of  time,  where  it  did  not  result  in  more  or  less  indiges- 
tion from  gastric  irritation  and  disordered  secretions,  and  an 
early  failure  in  the  secretion  of  milk.  It  probably  never  in- 
creases the  flow  of  milk  any  more  than  would  the  drinking  of 
the  same  quantity  of  pure  water ;  while  the  alcohol  it  contains, 
by  daily  repetition,  induces  congestion  of  the  gastric  mucous 
membrane,  with  disordered  gastric  and  hepatic  secretions. 

"  A  case  strikingly  illustrating  these  results  was  examined  by 
me  to-day.     The  patient  was  a  young  married  woman  who  was 


ALCOHOL  AS  A    MEDICINE.  245 

nursing  her  first  child,  now  nine  months  old.  At  the  time  of 
her  confinement  she  was  in  fair  health,  rather  nervous  tempera- 
ment, weight  120  pounds.  During  the  first  few  days  her  milk 
did  not  flow  very  freely,  and  she  says  her  physician  advised  her 
to  drink  beer.  Consequently  she  commenced  to  drink  a  glass 
of  beer  at  each  mealtime,  and  a  bottle  during  the  night.  Dur- 
ing the  first  six  months  she  had  sufficient  milk  for  her  baby  ; 
but  before  the  end  of  that  time  she  had  begun  to  suffer  from 
flatulency,  constipation,  gaseous  and  acid  eructations,  what  she 
calls  •  heart-burn,'  and  sometimes  vomiting.  During  the  last 
three  months  she  has  suffered,  in  addition  to  the  preceding 
symptoms,  one  or  two  attacks  each  week  of  extreme  pain,  from 
the  lower  point  of  the  sternum  to  the  back  between  the  scapula, 
accompanied  by  retching,  or  severe  efforts  to  vomit.  To  relieve 
these  attacks  she  has  taken  liberal  doses  of  gin,  in  addition  to 
her  regular  supply  of  beer.  Now  at  the  end  of  nine  months, 
her  milk  has  nearly  ceased  to  flow,  her  bowels  are  costive,  her 
stomach  tolerates  only  small  quantities  of  the  simplest  nourish- 
ment, her  flesh  and  strength  are  very  much  reduced,  her  weight 
being  only  96  pounds  ;  and  yet  she  thinks  both  the  beer  and  gin 
make  her  feel  better  every  time  she  takes  them.  Such  is  the 
delusive  power  of  the  anaesthetic  effect  of  alcohol.  A  persist- 
ence in  the  same  management  would  probably  terminate  fatally 
in  from  six  to  twelve  months  more,  from  chronic  gastritis,  and 
inanition.  But  if  she  will  rigidly  abstain  from  all  -alcoholic  rem- 
edies, and  take  only  the  most  bland,  unirritating  nourishment, 
aided  by  mildly  soothing  and  antiseptic  remedies,  and  fresh  air, 
she  will  slowly  recover." 

In  a  clinical  lecture  delivered  before  the  Senior 
Class  in  the  Northwestern  University  Medical 
School,  Dr.  Davis  told  of  a  case  similar  to  the  pre- 
ceding : — 

"  The  flow  of  milk  in  her  breasts  has  also  diminished  to  such 
a  degree  that  she  does  not  have  half  enough  for  her  baby.     Yet  ' 


246  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

she  says  the  beer  makes  her  feel  better  after  each  drink,  and 
that  the  gin  helps  to  relieve  the  severe  attacks  of  pain,  and 
consequently  she  thinks  she  could  not  do  without  them.  It  is 
undoubtedly  true  that  the  patient  feels  temporary  relief  from 
the  anaesthetic  effect  of  the  alcohol  in  her  beer  and  gin,  just  as 
she  would  from  any  anaesthetic  or  narcotic.  And  it  is  equally 
true  that  so  long  as  the  alcohol  is  present  in  her  blood  it  so 
modifies  the  hemoglobin  and  albuminous  constituents,  as  to 
diminish  the  reception  and  internal  distribution  of  oxygen,  and 
thereby  retards  metabolic  changes.  But  the  combined  influence 
of  the  alcohol  in  retarding  the  internal  distribution  of  oxygen  and 
the  drain  upon  the  nutritive  elements  of  her  blood,  in  furnishing 
milk  for  her  baby,  led  to  rapid  impoverishment  of  the  blood  and 
tissues,  and  the  early  establishment  of  a  sufficient  grade  of  gas- 
tritis to  cause  indigestion,  frequent  vomiting,  and,  later,  parox- 
ysms of  severe  gastralgia,  with  general  emaciation,  and  loss  of 
strength. 

"  In  accordance  with  the  present  popular  ideas,  both  in  and 
out  of  the  profession,  this  patient  tells  me  she  has  tried  a  great 
variety  of  foods,  peptonized,  sterilized,  and  predigested,  but  all 
to  no  purpose.  And  why  ?— Simply  because  her  troubles  are 
not  in  the  kind  of  food  she  takes,  but  in  the  morbid  condition  of 
her  blood,  and  of  the  mucous  membrane  and  nerves  of  her 
stomach.  Consequently  the  rational  indications  for  treatment 
are  :  (a)  to  get  her  stomach  and  blood  free  from  the  alcohol  of 
beer  and  gin  ;  (b)  to  encourage  the  reception  and  internal  dis- 
tribution of  oxygen  by  plenty  of  fresh  air ;  (c)  to  give  her  the 
most  bland,  or  unirritating  food  in  small,  and  frequently  repeated 
doses,  of  which  good  milk  with  lime-water,  and  milk  and  wheat- 
flour  gruel  are  the  best ;  (d)  such  medicines  as  possess  suffi- 
cient antiseptic,  and  anodyne  properties  to  allay  the  irritability 
of  the  gastric   mucous  membrane,  and   lessen  fermentation." 


CHAPTER  X. 

COMPARATIVE   DEATH-RATES   WITH   AND   WITHOUT 
THE  USE  OF  ALCOHOL  AS  A  REMEDY. 

A  STUDY  of  statistics  relating  to  the  difference 
in  results  of  the  treatment  of  disease  with  and 
without  the  use  of  alcohol,  cannot  but  be  of  great 
interest  to  all  students  of  the  alcohol  question. 
The  appended  statistics  are  culled  mainly  from  the 
Medical  Pioneer  of  England,  now,  Medical  Temper- 
ance Review,  the  journal  of  the  British  Medical  Tem- 
perance Association,  and  from  the  Bulletin  of  the 
American  Medical  Temperance  Association. 

A  paragraph  in  the  British  Medical  Journal,  for 
Dec.  2,  1893,  says: — 

"  An  interesting  fact  has  been  noted  by  Dr.  Claye  Shaw,  at  | 
the  London  County  Asylum,  Banstead,  for  the  Insane.  Since 
the  withdrawal  of  beer  from  the  dietary,  the  rate  of  recovery 
has  gone  up.  During  the  past  year,  for  example,  the  recoveries 
reached  46.97  per  cent.  Nearly  one  half  of  the  patients  had 
thus  recovered  during  the  period  stated.  The  inmates  take 
their  food  better  without  the  liquor,  and  they  are  thus  taught 
that  intoxicants  are  not  a  necessity  of  ordinary  health." 

In  the  Medical  Pioneer  for  January,  1894,  Dr.  John 
Mois,  medical  superintendent  of  West  Haven  Infec- 

247 


248  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

tious  Diseases  Hospital,  states  that  prior  to  1885  he 
had  treated  2,148  cases  of  smallpox  "  in  the  usual 
routine  method,  with  the  use  of  alcohol  when  the 
heart's  action  seemed  to  indicate  it ; "  resulting  in  a 
mortality  of  17  per  cent.  But  since  1885  he  has 
treated  700  additional  cases  under  similar  circum- 
stances except  that  the  use  of  alcoholic  preparations 
was  entirely  omitted,  and  the  resulting  mortality 
was  only  1 1  per  cent. 

In  the  same  journal,  Dr.  J.  J.  Ridge  states  that 
he  had  treated  the  200  cases  of  scarlet  fever  ad- 
mitted into  the  Enfield  Isolation  Hospital  during 
the  years  1892  and  1893,  without  alcohol  in  any 
form,  with  a  mortality  of  only  2.5  per  cent. ;  while 
the  mortality  in  the  hospitals  under  the  Metropoli- 
tan Asylums  Board  in  1893,  in  which  alcohol  was 
used  in  accordance  with  the  usual  practice  in  scar- 
let fever,  was  6.3  per  cent. 

Dr.  J.  J.  Ridge  says  later : — 

"  In  January,  1894,  I  published  the  result  of  the  treatment  of 
the  first  200  cases  of  scarlatina  admitted  into  the  temporary- 
wards  of  the  Enfield  Isolation  Hospital  during  1892  and  1893. 
I  stated  that  there  had  been  five  fatal  cases,  but  that  one  was 
dying  when  admitted  and  only  lived  a  few  hours.  The 
mortality  was  2  per  cent.,  or  2.5  if  the  later  case  is  included. 

"  Since  then  300  more  cases  have  been  admitted  and  dis- 
charged and  among  these  there  have  been  7  fatal.  Hence  there 
have  been  14  deaths  in  500  consecutive  cases  extending  over  a 
period  of  a  little  more  than  four  years.  One  of  these  ought 
to  be   excluded,    no   time  having  been   given    for   treatment. 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  249 

Hence  the  mortality  has  been  just  2.6  per  cent.  This,  I  think 
it  will  be  admitted,  is  a  low  mortality,  although  it  is  possible  it 
may  be  even  lower  when  the  cases  are  treated  in  a  permanent 
hospital  about  to  be  erected. 

"  It  may  be  interesting  to  state  that  4  of  the  cases  died  on 
the  third  day  after  admission  ;  1  on  the  fourth  ;  1  on  the  sixth  ; 
1  on  the  tenth,  with  pneumonia  ;  1  on  the  thirteenth  ;  1  on  the 
fifteenth ;  1  on  the  sixteenth  ;  1  on  the  eighteenth ;  1  on  the 
thirty-sixth,  with  nephritis  and  pleuropneumonia ;  and  1  on  the 
forty-sixth,  with  otitis  and  meningitis. 

"  All  the  cases  have  been  treated  without  alcohol  either  as 
food  or  drug,  although  many  have  been  of  great  severity  with 
various  complications.  It  is  certain  that  the  absence  of  alcohol 
has  not  been  detrimental,  since  the  mortality  is  less  than  three- 
fourths  of  that  of  the  mortality  among  all  notified  cases  in  Eng- 
land and  Wales.  I  am  bound  to  say  that  it  is  my  firm  con- 
viction that  had  alcohol  been  given  in  the  usual  fashion,  the 
death-rate  would  have  been  higher.  Cases  have  been  admitted 
to  which  alcohol  has  been  given  previous  to  admission,  appar- 
ently with  harm,  as  they  have  improved  without  it.  One  case 
was  particularly  noticeable  in  this  respect.  A  child,  aged  6, 
had  had  a  good  deal  of  whisky,  and  was  supposed  to  be  dying 
when  admitted  on  the  fourth  day  of  the  disease,  so  that  the 
doctor  who  had  seen  it  was  surprised,  when  he  called  the  fol- 
lowing day  to  inquire,  to  find  it  was  still  alive.  Without  a 
drop  of  alcohol  it  began  to  improve  and  made  a  good  recovery. 
I  may  say  that  delirium  is  very  rare,  even  in  the  worst  cases 
treated  non-alcoholically." 

Dr.  Norman  Kerr  says  : — 

"  In  my  paper  on  '  The  Medical  Administration  of  Alcohol,'" 
read  to  the  section  of  medicine  at  the  Sheffield  meeting  in  1876, 
I  cited  several  medical  testimonies  in  favor  of  non-alcoholic 
treatment  of  fevers,  notably  that  of  my  friend,  the  late  Dr. 
Simon  Nicolls,  who  had  a  mortality  of  less  than  5  per  cent,  in 
230  cases. 


250  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

"  The  record  of  the  results  of  a  greatly  lessened  administration 
of  alcohol  in  the  treatment  of  smallpox  in  the  London  hospital 
ships,  is  of  deep  interest.  Having  been  requested  to  inquire 
into  the  effects  of  this  diminished  alcoholic  stimulation  on  mor- 
tality and  convalescence,  Dr.  Birdwood  stated  that  though  the 
gravity  of  the  cases  had  increased,  with  a  mortality  of  15  per 
100  in  the  metropolis,  the  ship's  death-rate  had  remained  at 
less  than  7  per  100.  Convalescence  had  been  more  rapid,  and 
there  had  been  fewer  and  less  serious  complications  from  ab- 
scesses and  inflammatory  boils.  Other  causes  had  contributed 
to  this  improvement,  but  the  medical  officers  attributed  a  con- 
siderable share  in  the  amelioration  to  a  greatly  diminished  pre- 
scription of  alcohol." 

The  Medical  Pioneer  says  : — 

"  In  1872  there  appeared  in  the  Saturday  Review  an  article 
in  which  the  medical  practitioners  of  this  country  were  accused 
of  inciting  their  patients  to  free  drinking,  and  in  the  discussion 
which  this  article  called  forth,  Dr.  Gairdner,  of  Glasgow,  said 
that  fever  patients  in  that  city,  when  treated  with  milk  and 
without  alcohol,  did  much  better  than  those  reported  as  having 
been  treated  by  Dr.  Todd  with  large  doses  of  alcohol ;  the 
latter  resulting  in  a  mortality  of  about  25  per  cent.,  while  those 
treated  by  Dr.  Gairdner  with  milk  had  had  a  death-rate  of 
only  12  per  cent.  About  this  time  the  British  Medical  Tem- 
perance Association  was  founded,  owing  to  the  exertions  of 
Dr.  Ridge,  of  Enfield,  and  in  1876  it  was  enrolled,  under  the 
presidency  of  Sir  B.  W.  Richardson.  It  now  contains  269 
members  in  England  and  Wales,  53  in  Scotland  and  80  in  Ire- 
land, or  more  than  400  altogether,  all  professional  men  and 
women.  This,  I  think,  is  but  a  sign  of  the  change  of  opinion 
on  the  use  of  alcoholic  fluids  in  medical  practice,  for  all  who  re- 
member what  medical  practice  was  in  London  thirty  years  ago 
know  that  the  use  of  wine  and  brandy  in  hospital  practice  was 
so  common  that  it  was  quite  a  rarity  in  some  hospitals  to  find  a 


ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE.  25  I 

patient  who  was  not  ordered,  by  some  of  the  staff,  from  three 
to  four  ounces  of  brandy  or  six  to  eight  fluid  ounces  of  wine. 
The  expense  caused  to  the  hospitals  by  this  practice  was,  of 
course,  great,  and  increased  notably  between  1852  and  1872, 
owing  to  the  prevalence  of  the  views  of  Liebig  and  his  follower, 
Dr.  Todd.  The  writings  of  Parkes,  Gairdner,  Dr.  Norman 
Kerr  and  of  Sir  B.  Ward  Richardson,  Dr.  Morton  and  others, 
gradually  lessened  this  predilection  for  treating  diseases  by  al- 
cohol, and  accordingly  between  1872  and  1882  a  great  change 
came  over  the  practice  of  London  hospitals.  Thus  the  sum 
paid  for  milk  in  1852  in  Saint  Bartholomew's  Hospital  was 
^684,  and  in  1882  it  was  £2,012  ;  whilst  alcohol  in  that  hospital 
cost  in  1852,  ^406;  in  1862,  ^1,446  ;  in  1872,  ^1,446  ;  and  in 
1882  only  ^653.  Westminster  Hospital  in  1882  spent  ^137  on 
alcohol  and  ^500  on  milk.  One  hospital,  St.  George's,  long 
continued  to  *jse  large  quantities  of  alcohol.  That  hospital  in 
1872  had  the  high  mortality  among  its  typhoid  fever  patients  of 
24  per  cent.,  which  was  twice  as  high  as  that  noted  by  Dr. 
Gairdner  as  occurring  in  Glasgow,  when  alcohol  was  aban- 
doned and  milk  used  instead.  Dr.  Meyer,  who  reported  these 
cases  of  typhoid  treated  in  Saint  George's  Hospital  at  that  time, 
mentioned  that  alcohol  in  large  doses  was  given  to  87  per  cent, 
of  the  patients.  Three-fifths  of  these  patients  took  daily  eight 
ounces  of  brandy  when  there  was  danger  of  sinking  from  fail- 
ure of  the  heart's  action.  One-fourth  of  the  number  took  six- 
teen fluid  ounces  of  brandy  in  the  24  hours." 

"  In  230  typhoid  cases  in  St.  Mary's  Hospital,  Dr.  Chambers 
reduced  the  ratio  of  deaths  from  1  in  5  with  alcohol  to  1  in  40 
without  it.  Dr.  Perry,  of  Glasgow,  found  that  of  534  cases 
treated  with  alcohol,  138  died,  while  of  491  treated  without  al- 
cohol, only  9  died." 

In  a  recent  text-book  on  medicine  occurs  the 
following: — 

"  English  physicians  use  spirits  in  fevers,  and  all  experience 


252  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

sustains  the  conviction  that  no  substitute  has  been  found  for 
them." 

In  a  late  number  of  the  Temperance  Record,  Dr. 
Smith  gives  a  different  view  of  the  experience  of 
English  physicians  : — 

"When  Bentley  Todd  was  at  King's  College,  and  leading 
his  profession,  brandy  was  the  rule  in  febrile  cases.  Then  the 
mortality  varied  from  twenty-five  to  thirty-five  per  cent. 
That  the  treatment  was  as  fatal  as  the  disease,  experience 
demonstrates  : — 

"  i.  Professor  W.  T.  Gairdner,  of  Glasgow,  writing  to  the 
Lancet  (1864),  gave  his  experience  as  follows  : — 

Fever  cases  treated.  Average  of  wine  and  spirits.  Mortality. 

1,829                                    34  oz.  to  each  17.69  per  cent. 

595                                    i\  oz.  to  each  11.93  per  cent. 

212                                    none  1  death  only, 
(young  lives) 

"  These  were  mostly  typhus  cases,  but  the  rationale,  so  far  as 
alcohol  is  concerned,  is  the  same  as  in  typhoid. 

"  2.  At  the  British  Medical  Association  in  1879,  Professor  H. 
MacNaughton  Jones  gave  particulars  ot  340  cases  of  typhus, 
typhoid  and  simple  fever.     I  append  a  summary : — 

Cases.  Deaths.  Mortality 

per  cent. 

Given  brandy 58  19  32.7 

Given  claret 51  2  3.8 

Given  no  alcohol 231  4  1.7 

"  3.  Dr.  J.  C.  Pearson  writes  to  the  Lancet  (Dec.  5  and  26, 
1891),  giving  his  experience  of  typhoid.  He  had  treated  sev- 
eral hundreds  of  cases  without  a  single  death,  and  never'pre- 
scribed  stimulants  in  any  shape  or  form  in  the  disease. 

"4.  Dr.  Knox  Bond  writes  to  the  Lancet  (Nov.  25,  1893), 
giving  his  experience  of  typhoid  at  the  Liverpool  Fever  Hospital. 
He  says  :  '  Asa  resident  for  some  years  in  the  fever  hospitals, 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  253 

my  views  of  the  value  of  alcohol  in  fever  underwent,  solely  as  a 
result  of  the  experience  there  gained,  entire  modification.  The 
conviction  became  forced  upon  my  mind  that  in  no  case  in 
which  it  was  used  did  benefit  to  the  patient  ensue  ;  that  in  a 
proportion  of  cases  its  use  was  distinctly  hurtful ;  and  that  in  a 
small  but  appreciable  number  of  cases  the  resultant  harm  was 
sufficient  to  tilt  the  balance  as  against  the  recovery  of  the 
patient.' 

"  In  plain  terms,  alcohol  tended  to  the  destruction  of  the 
patients.     Dr.  Bond's  figures  are  : — ■ 

No.  of  cases.  No.  of  deaths. 

Given  alcohol 71  18 

Given  no  alcohol 309  15 

380  33 

In  May,  1890,  Dr.  Nathan  S.  Davis,  read  a  paper 
before  the  American  Medical  Association  upon  the 
use  of  certain  drugs  in  disease.  Among  the  drugs 
mentioned  was  alcohol,  and  comparative  death-rates 
were  given  in  typhoid  fever  and  pneumonia,  be- 
tween Mercy  Hospital,  Chicago,  during  a  term  of 
years  when  no  alcohol  was  used  in  the  medical 
wards,  Dr.  Davis  being  in  charge  of  them,  and 
some  of  the  large  metropolitan  hospitals  using  alco- 
hol. In  Mercy  Hospital  without  alcohol,  the  death- 
rate  in  typhoid  fever  was  only  five  per  cent.  ;  in 
pneumonia  only  twelve  per  cent. 

"  Of  161  cases  of  typhoid  fever  treated  in  Cook  County  Hospi- 
tal during  1889,  27  died,  or  one  in  six — nearly  17  ner  cent. 

"  According  to  the  annual  report  of  the  Cincinnati  Hospital 
for  1886,  47  cases  of  typhoid  fever  were  treated  during  that 
year,  with  seven  deaths,  a  mortality  rate  of  16  per  cent. 


254  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

"  The  Garfield  Memorial  Hospital,  at  Washington,  reported  for 
the  year  1889,  22  cases  of  typhoid  fever,  with  5  deaths — or  22 
per  cent. 

"  In  the  Pennsylvania  Hospital  the  mortality  rate  in  pneumo- 
nia for  the  years  1884- 1886,  was  34  per  cent. 

"  The  mortality  of  pneumonia  in  the  Massachusetts  General 
Hospital,  between  the  years  1822  and  1889,  comprising  1,000 
cases,  was  25  per  cent. ;  but  a  gradual  increase  in  mortality  had 
been  noted  from  10  per  cent,  in  the  first  decade  of  the  seventy 
years  represented  by  this  report,  to  28  per  cent,  in  the  last 
decade. 

"  According  to  the  report  of  the  Supervising  Surgeon  General 
of  the  U.  S.  Marine  Hospital  Service  for  1888,  the  number  of 
cases  of  pneumonia  treated  between  1880  and  1887  was  1,649, 
with  311  deaths — nearly  19  percent. 

"  The  Cincinnati  Hospital  reported  for  1886  a  mortality  rate 
in  pneumonia  of  38  per  cent. 

"  The  mortality  rate  in  the  Cook  County  Hospital,  Chicago, 
for  1889,  according  to  Dr.  Heltoin,  relating  to  80  cases  of  pneu- 
monia, was  36  per  cent." 

Only  a  five  per  cent,  death-rate  in  typhoid  fever 
without  alcohol,  and  from  sixteen  to  twenty-two 
per  cent,  with  alcohol ;  only  a  twelve  per  cent,  death- 
rate  in  pneumonia  without  alcohol,  and  from  19  to 
as  high  as  38  per  cent,  with  alcohol.  Such  are  the 
comparative  death-rates  given  by  Dr.  Davis.  They 
should  be  committed  to  memory  by  every  opposer 
of  the  use  of  alcohol,  as  they  show  clearly  that 
people  have  many  more  chances  for  recovery,  other 
things  being  equal,  in  the  diseases  mentioned,  if 
alcohol  is  not  used  than  if  it  is. 

It  is  worthy  of  mention   in  this  connection  that 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  25$ 

Cook  County  Hospital  contains  in  its  report  for 
1897  the  following  items:  Number  of  patients 
x9>536  ;  cost  of  liquors  $80.00  ;  per  cent,  of  deaths 
from  all  causes,  5.7.  The  cost  of  liquors  is  only 
.004  for  each  patient.  This  shows  a  decided  ad- 
vance in  the  disuse  of  alcohol,  when  so  very  little  is 
used  in  a  great  hospital,  with  so  large  a  number  of 
patients. 

Dr.  A.  L.  Loomis,  in  the  treatmemt  of  600  typhus 
fever  cases  on  Blackwell's  Island  in  1864,  excluded 
alcoholics,  with  the  result  of  reducing  the  mortality 
rate  to  only  six  per  cent,  whereas  it  had  previously 
been  twenty-two  per  cent.,  in  Bellevue  Hospital 
from  which  the  patients  had  been  removed. 

In  Battle  Creek  Sanitarium  no  alcohol  is  used  in 
any  disease,  simply  because  the  management  be- 
lieve better  results  are  obtained  by  the  use  of  other 
agencies.  In  the  October,  (1893)  number  of  the 
American  Medical  Temperance  Quarterly  now  Bulle- 
tin of  the  A.  M.  T.  A.,  Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg  gives 
statistics  of  deaths  from  various  diseases  in  the  Bat- 
tle Creek  Sanitarium.  The  total  of  these  statistics 
is  as  follows  :  la  grippe,  827  cases,  4  deaths — or  two 
per  cent.  ;  scarlet  fever,  83  cases,  2  deaths — less 
than  three  per  cent.  ;  333  cases  of  typhoid  fever,  9 
deaths — or  2.7  per  cent.  ;  82  cases  of  pneumonia,  4 
deaths — or  4.9  per  cent.  These  exceptional  results 
are  not  attributed  solely  to  the  non-use  of  alcohol. 
The  nursing  and  surroundings  were  of  the  best. 
But   these    results   certainly  show  that  the  use  of 


256  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

alcohol  as  a  remedy  in  acute  diseases  is  not  neces- 
sary, and  that  patients  have  a  much  better  chance 
for  life,  other  things  being  equal,  where  alcohol  is 
not  used  than  where  it  is. 

Dr.  Kellogg  says  of  the  surgical  cases  : — 
"  In  a  hospital  of  100  beds,  connected  with  the  institution, 
more  than  2,000  surgical  cases  have  been  treated,  to  whom  alco- 
hol has  never  been  administered  except  in  connection  with 
chloroform  anaesthesia  ;  my  uniform  custom  being  to  adminis- 
ter an  ounce  of  brandy  or  whisky  five  minutes  before  beginning 
the  administration  of  the  anaesthetic,  when  chloroform  is  used. 

"  The  surgical  cases  include  more  than  300  cases  of  ovariotomy, 
and  over  300  other  cases  involving  the  peritoneal  cavity,  such  as 
operations  for  strangulated  hernia,  the  radical  cure  of  hernia, 
etc.  The  statistics  of  death  and  recoveries  are  certainly  as 
good  as  can  be  produced  by  any  hospital  in  the  world,  dealing 
with  the  same  class  of  cases.  The  total  mortality  from  the 
operation  of  ovariotomy,  including  nearly  300  cases,  is  less  than 
three  per  cent.,  and  for  the  last  few  years,  in  which  the  antisep- 
tic measures  have  been  perfected,  the  record  is  still  better, 
showing  a  succession  of  172  cases  of  laparotomy  for  the  re- 
moval of  ovarian  tumors,  or  diseased  uterus  and  ovaries,  with- 
out a  death.  These  cases  include  a  number  of  hyterectomies, 
and  many  cases  so  desperate  that  those  who  trust  in  alcohol  as 
a  heart  stimulant,  and  as  a  means  of  supporting  the  vital  ener- 
gies, would  certainly  have  considered  it  necessary  to  resort  to 
the  use  of  this  drug.  Nevertheless,  it  was  not  administered  in 
-a  single  case,  and  I  have  seen  no  reason  to  regret  its  non-use 
in  a  single  instance." 

Dr.  T.  D.  Crothers,  of  Hartford,  Conn.,  tells  the 
following: — 

"  In  a  large  hospital  a  study  of  the  mortality  of  pneumonia 
indicated  a  greater  fatality  at  intervals  of   six  months.     There 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  257 

were  five  per  cent,  more  deaths  during  periods  of  two  months 
at  a  time,  twice  during  the  year.  This  extended  back  for  two 
years,  and  was  finally  narrowed  down  to  the  service  of  an  emi- 
nent physician  who  gave  spirits  freely  in  all  cases  of  pneumonia 
from  their  entrance  to  the  hospital.  The  other  visiting  physi- 
cians gave  very  little  spirits,  and  only  in  the  later  stages.  The 
physician  was  skeptical  of  these  statistics,  but  finally  consented 
to  test  them  by  giving  up  spirits  practically  in  all  cases  of  pneu- 
monia. This  was  continued  for  a  year,  and  the  mortality  went 
back  to  the  average  statistics.  That  physician  has  abandoned 
alcohol  as  a  food  and  a  medicine,  only  in  very  limited  degree. 
He  writes,  '  My  stupidity  in  accepting  theories  and  statements 
of  others,  concerning  spirits,  which  I  could  have  tested  person- 
ally, is  a  source  of  deep  sorrow,  and  I  do  not  know  but  it  could 
be  called  criminal.  I  certainly  feel  that  punishment  would  be 
just." 

Brandy  has  been  considered  the  great  necessity 
in  cholera,  yet  the  use  of  it  and  other  alcoholics  are 
known  to  expose  people  to  greater  danger  when 
this  disease  prevails. 

The  Bulletin  of  the  A.  M.  T.  A.  is  authority 
for  the  following  : — 

"During  the  epidemic  of  1832,  Dr.  Bronson  said  :  '  In  Mon- 
treal 1,000  persons  have  died  of  chofera,  only  two  of  whom 
were  teetotalers.'  A  Montreal  paper  said  :  '  Not  a  drunkard 
who  has  been  attacked  has  recovered  from  the  disease,  and  al- 
most all  the  victims  have  been  at  least  moderate  drinkers.' 

"In  Albany,  N.  Y.,  the  same  year,  cholera  carried  off  366  per- 
sons above  sixteen  years  of  age,  all  but  four  of  whom  belonged 
to  the  drinking  classes.  Packer,  Prentice  &  Co.,  large  furriers 
in  Albany,  employed  400  persons,  none  of  whom  used  ardent 
spirits,  and  there  were  only  two  cases  of  cholera  among  them. 
Mr.  Delevan,  a  contractor,  said  :  •  I  was  engaged  at  the  time  in 


258  ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE. 

erecting  a  large  block  of  buildings.  The  laborers  were  much 
alarmed,  and  were  on  the  point  of  abandoning  the  work.  They 
were  advised  to  stay  and  give  up  strong  drink.  They  all  re- 
mained, and  all  quit  the  use  of  strong  drink  except  one,  and  he 
fell  a  victim  to  the  disease.'  He  says  also  :  '  I  had  a  gang  of 
diggers  in  a  clay  bank,  to  whom  the  same  proposition  was 
made  ;  they  all  agreed  to  it,  and  not  one  died.  On  the  opposite 
side  of  the  same  clay  bank  were  other  diggers  who  continued 
their  regular  rations  of  whisky,  and  one  third  of  them  died.' 

"  In  New  York  City  there  were  204  cases  in  the  park,  only  six 
of  whom  were  temperate,  and  these  recovered,  while  1 22  of  the 
others  died.  In  many  parts  of  the  city  the  saloon  keepers  saw 
and  acknowledged  the  terrible  connection  between  their  busi- 
ness and  the  spread  of  the  disease,  and,  becoming  alarmed  for 
their  own  safety,  shut  up  their  saloons  and  fled,  saying :  ■  The 
way  from  the  saloon  to  hell  is  too  short.' 

"  In  Washington  the  Board  of  Health  was  so  impressed  with 
the  terrible  facts  that  they  declared  the  grog  shops  nuisances, 
ordered  them  closed,  and  they  remained  closed  for  three  months. 

"  A  prominent  physician  of  Glasgow  reported  :  '  Only  nine- 
teen per  cent,  of  the  temperate  perished,  while  ninety-one  and 
two-tenths  per  cent,  of  the  intemperate  died.'  One  extensive 
liquor  dealer  of  Glasgow,  said,  '  Cholera  has  carried  off  half  of 
my  customers.' 

"  In  Warsaw  ninety  per  cent,  of  those  who  died  from  cholera 
were  wine  drinkers. 

"  At  Tifels,  Prussia,  a  town  of  20,  000  inhabitants,  every  drunk- 
ard died  of  cholera." 

The  St.  Paul  Medical  Journal,  of  September, 
1899,  gives  the  following  report  of  a  railway  sur- 
geon, Dr.  Kane : — 

"  From  June  1,  1898,  to  June  1,  1899,  the  author  performed  a 
few  more  than  four  hundred  operations.     Forty-nine  abdomi- 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  259 

nal  sections,  fifty  odd  more  operations  of  a  graver  sort,  one 
hundred  miscellaneous  of  less  gravity  than  above,  over  one 
hundred  operations  upon  female  perineum  and  uterus.  Of  the 
four  hundred,  more  than  three  hundred  demanded  anaesthesia. 
There  were  but  three  deaths,  making  the  mortality  a  little  less 
than  one  per  cent. 

"  The  author  does  not  claim  a  phenomenally  low  mortality,  nor 
does  he  claim  specially  brilliant  results.  He  has  to  contend 
with  unreasoning  fear  on  the  part  of  the  patients  for  hospital 
surgeons,  and  also  most  of  his  cases  had  been  in  the  hands 
of  quacks,  and  had  subjected  themselves  to  remedies  prescribed 
by  old  women.  Many  cases  came  after  the  family  physician 
had  exhausted  his  resources.  He  thinks  his  results  are  consid- 
erably better  than  the  average  in  hospitals  and  in  country 
districts.  Alcohol  medication  was  dispensed  with  entirely 
after  the  patients  came  under  his  care,  and  to  this  he  attributes 
much  of  his  success.  He  does  not  believe  that  alcohol  is  a  stim- 
ulant, or  a  tonic.  On  the  contrary,  he  believes  that  it  retards 
digestion,  arrests  secretion,  and  hinders  excretion.  The  courage 
and  fortitude  of  his  patients  were  lessened  instead  of  increased 
by  the  use  of  alcoholic  medication. 

"  Pain  is  better  borne,  endured  longer  and  more  patiently 
when  alcohol  is  not  used. 

"  He  urges  the  practical  surgeon  to  carefully  weigh  the  subject 
of  alcohol,  and  verify  for  himself  the  expediency  of  its  use." 

Dr.  B.  W.  Richardson  in  the  report  of  his  prac- 
tice for  1895  in  the  London  Temperance  Hospital 
refers  to  non-alcoholic  treatment  of  rheumatism. 
He  said : — 

"  Out  of  seventy-one  cases  of  acute  or  subacute  rheumatism 
—the  large  majority  acute,  and  attended  with  temperatures 
moving  up  to  104  °  F.-sixty-nine  recovered,  and  two,  although 
they  were  discharged  without  being  put  on  the  recovery  fee 


260  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

were  so  far  relieved  that  a  few  days'  change  in  country  air 
seemed  all  that  was  required  to  induce  full  restoration.  Com- 
paring the  experience  of  the  treatment  of  acute  rheumatic  dis- 
ease without  alcohol  with  that  which  I  have  previously  ob- 
served with  alcohol,  I  can  have  no  hesitation  in  declaring  that  it 
is  of  the  greatest  advantage  to  follow  total  abstinence  abso- 
lutely in  this  disease.  The  pain  and  swelling  of  joints  is  more 
quickly  relieved  under  abstinence,  the  fever  falls  more  rapidly, 
there  is  less  frequent  relapse,  and  there  is  quicker  recovery. 
In  brief,  the  experience  of  treament  of  rheumatic  fever  minus 
alcohol,  presents  to  me  as  much  novelty  as  it  does  pleasure, 
and  I  am  convinced  that  if  any  candid  member  of  the  profes- 
sion could  have  witnessed  what  I  have  witnessed  in  this  matter, 
he  would  agree  with  me  that  alcohol  in  rheumatic  fever,  how- 
ever acute,  is  altogether  out  of  place.  I  am  also  under  the 
conviction,  though  I  express  it  with  great  reserve,  that  in  acute 
rheumatism,  treated  without"  alcohol,  the  cardiac  complica- 
tions, endocardial  and  pericardial,  are  much  less  frequently  de- 
veloped than  where  alcohol  is  supplied." 

Dr.  Pechuman  in  Alcohol — Is  It  a  Medicine,  pub- 
lished in  1891,  says: — 

"  There  is  no  disputing  that  many  deaths  occur  each  day  as 
the  result  of  the  administration  of  alcohol  in  acute  diseases,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  deaths  caused  by  its  habitual  use ;  and  those 
who  give  it  ignore  the  very  fundamental  principles  of  phys- 
iology and  the  many  published  statistics.  The  Boston  Hos- 
pital report  tells  a  sad  story  in  this  connection-;  it  shows  that 
out  of  1,042  cases  treated  with  alcoholics  386  died,  while  out  of 
the  same  number  treated  without  alcohol  only  81  died.  Using 
plain  English  305  were  actually  killed  by  it." 

Dr.  T.  D.  Crothers,  in  the  January,  1899,  Bulletin 
of  the  American  Medical  Temperance  Association, 
gave  the  following  Hospital  Statistics,  showing  a 
decline  in  the  use  of  spirits  in  hospitals : — 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  26l 

"  Evidently  a  great  change  is  going  on  in  the  use  of  alcohol 
as  a  remedy  in  large  hospitals.  The  annual  reports  of  ten  hos- 
pitals in  the  New  England  and  the  Middle  States  show  the 
following  widely  varying  figures.  The  spirits  used  include 
beers,  wines,  whiskies  and  brandies,  and  vary  from  eleven  to 
sixty-one  cents  a  person  for  all  the  cases  treated.  These  hos- 
pitals treat  from  eighty  to  seven  hundred  cases  a  year,  both 
surgical  and  medical,  and  the  medical  staff  are  the  leading 
physicians  of  the  towns  and  cities  where  they  are  located.  The 
hospital  where  the  largest  amount  of  spirits  was  used  is  not 
different  from  others,  nor  is  the  one  where  the  lowest  amount 
is  reported.  The  conclusion  is  that  this  difference  is  due 
entirely  to  the  judgment  of  the  medical  men.  The  lowest  rate 
(eleven  cents  each)  was  in  a  hospital  where  one  hundred  and 
twenty-one  cases  had  been  under  treatment.  The  highest 
rate  (sixty-one  cents)  was  in  a  hospital  of  five  hundred  and 
forty  cases.  The  mortality  from  typhoid  fever  and  pneumonia 
was  eight  per  cent,  higher  in  this  hospital  than  in  the  one 
where  only  eleven  cents  a  head  had  been  expended  for  spirits. 
The  general  mortality  did  not  vary  greatly  in  any  of  these  hos- 
pitals, and  the  records  of  one  year  could  not  be  expected  to 
show  this.  In  the  remaining  hospitals  the  mortality  of  the 
fever  and  the  septic  cases  was  about  the  same.  The  free  use 
of  spirits  did  not  show  any  improvement,  but  rather  an  increase 
of  the  death-rate,  while  the  same  amount  of  spirits  used 
showed  but  little  change,  and  that  in  the  line  of  improvement 
of  death-rate.  These  are  only  the  figures  of  one  year,  but 
they  indicate  a  change  of  practice,  and  show  the  passing  of 
alcohol  as  a  remedy." 


CHAPTER  XL  ! 

REASONS   WHY   ALCOHOL   IS   DANGEROUS  AS 
MEDICINE. 

In  the  chapter  upon  "  The  Effects  of  Alcohol 
upon  the  Human  Body "  are  cited  some  of  the 
reasons  assigned  by  scientific  investigators  for  their 
disuse  of  alcohol  as  a  remedy  in  disease.  In  this 
chapter  the  same  may  be  briefly  hinted  at,  while 
others,  some  the  results  of  quite  recent  research, 
will  be  added. 

In  the  Bulletin  of  the  A.  M.  T.  A.,  for  January 
1898,  Dr.  N.  S.  Davis  says  :— 

"  The  supposed  effects  of  alcohol  as  a  medicine  were 
originally  based  solely  on  the  sensations  and  actions  of  the 
patients  taking  it.  The  first  appreciable  effect  of  the  alcohol 
after  entering  the  blood  is  that  of  an  anaesthetic  ;  that  is,  it 
diminishes  the  sensibility  of  the  brain  and  nerve  structures,  in 
the  same  direction  as  ether  and  chloroform.  vVnd,  as  the  brain 
is  the  material  seat  of  man's  consciousness,  tfcre  alcohol  renders 
him  less  conscious  of  cold  or  heat,  of  weariness  or  pain,  and 
less  conscious  of  his  own  weight  or  of  any  external  resistance. 
Consequently,  when  under  the  influence  of  small  doses,  he 
feels  lighter  and  less  conscious  of  any  external  impressions, 
and  thinks  he  could  do  more  than  without  it.  It  was^  these 
effects  that  led  both  the  patient  and  his  physician  to  regard 
the  alcohol  as  a  general  stimulant  or  tonic,  notwithstanding 
the  fact  that  by  simply  increasing  the  doses  of  alcohol  the 
262 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  263 

sensibility  soon  became   entirely  suspended,  and  the  patient 
helpless  and  altogether  unconscious.     ***** 

"  Simple  increased  frequency  of  the  heart  action  is  no  evi- 
dence of  either  increased  force  or  efficiency  in  promoting  the 
circulation  of  the  blood.  Indeed,  it  may  be  stated  as  a  physi- 
ological law,  that  the  more  frequent  the  heart  action  above  the 
normal  standard,  the  less  efficiently  does  it  promote  the  circula- 
tion and  strength  of  the  living  system.  But  the  effect  of  a 
moderate  dose  of  alcohol  in  increasing  the  frequency  of  the 
heart-beat  and  of  blood  pressure  is  so  temporary  that  the  doses 
must  be  repeated  so  often  that  the  alcohol  accumulates  in  the 
blood  and  tissues,  and  extends  its  paralyzing  effects  to  all 
the  vasomotor,  cardiac  and  respiratory  nerves.  Indeed,  all 
the  investigators  agree  that  alcohol  in  any  dose  capable  of  pro- 
ducing an  appreciable  effect,  diminishes  the  function  of  the 
lungs  in  direct  proportion  to  the  quantity  taken ;  and  as  the 
lungs  are  the  only  channel  through  which  free  oxygen  reaches 
the  blood,  and  such  oxygen  is  the  natural  exciter  of  all  vital 
activities  in  the  living  body,  it  is  not  possible  to  explain  how 
alcohol,  or  any  other  drug  that  diminishes  the  function  of  the 
lungs  can,  at  the  same  time,  act  as  a  cardiac,  or  any  other  kind 
of  tonic. 

"  The  truth  is  that  all  intelligent  physicians  and  writers  on 
therapeutics  of  the  present  day  agree  in  stating  that  alcohol  in 
large  doses  directly  diminishes  all  the  vital  processes  in  the 
living  body,  and  in  still  larger  doses  suspends  the  life  of  the 
individual  by  paralyzing  the  cerebral,  vasomotor,  respiratory 
and  cardiac  functions,  generally  in  the  order  named.  If  large 
doses  produce  such  effects,  we  must  logically  claim  that  small  t 
doses  act  in  the  same  direction,  but  in  less  degree.  In  other 
words,  alcohol  is  as  truly  and  exclusively  an  anaesthetic  as  is 
ether  or  chloroform,  and,  like  them,  is  to  be  used  as  a  medi- 
cine only  temporarily  to  relieve  pain,  or  suspend  nerve  sensi- 
bility. But  as  for  these  purposes  it  is  less  efficient  than  either 
ether  or  chloroform,  and  other  narcotics,  there  is   no   neces- 


264  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

sity  for  using  it  as  a  remedy  in  the  treatment  of  disease.  And 
in  health  its  use  in  any  dose  can  be  productive  of  nothing  but 
injury.  The  only  legitimate  fields  for  the  uses  of  alcohol  are  in 
chemistry,  pharmacy  and  the  arts." 

In  another  issue  of  the  same  magazine,  Dr.  Davis 
writes  of  the  investigations  pursued  by  M.  Robin 
of  France  in  regard  to  the  chemistry  of  respiration. 
These  investigations,  he  says,  afford  conclusive 
proof  that  the  acts  of  oxidation  are  defensive  proc- 
esses of  the  organism  in  its  struggle  with  bacteria, 
and  therefore  that  the  physician  should  favor  in 
every  possible  way  the  absorption  of  oxygen  in 
every  infection,  especially  when  there  are  typhoid 
complications. 

He  then  speaks  of  the  researches  of  other  scien- 
tists in  the  same  line,  concluding  thus  : — 

"  If  we  add  to  the  foregoing  investigations  the  results  obtained 
by  Dr.  A.  C.  Abbott,  demonstrating  that  the  presence  of 
alcohol  directly  diminished  the  vital  resistance  to  infections, 
we  cannot  fail  to  see  that  the  administration  of  alcohol  in 
diphtheria,  typhoid  fever,  pneumonia  and  other  infectious 
diseases,  is  directly  contraindicated.  If,  as  shown  byM.  Robin, 
1  the  acts  of  oxidation  are  defensive  processes '  against  bacterial 
infections,  then  certainly  the  administration  of  alcohol  to  pa- 
tients with  such  infections  is  in  the  highest  degree  illogical  and  ' 
injurious.  The  oxygen  being  obtained  for  oxidation  purposes 
in  the  blood  and  tissues,  through  the  respiratory  process,  it 
would  be  equally  absurd  to  administer  alcohol  in  all  cases  in 
which  it  is  desirable  to  increase  the  processes  of  oxidation,  as  a 
long  series  of  experiments  has  shown  that  the  presence  of 
alcohol  diminishes  the  efficiency  of  the  respiratory  process  in 
direct  proportion  to  the  quantity  used. 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  265 

"  How  much  longer  will  practical  writers  continue  to  recom- 
mend for  the  same  patient  on  the  same  day,  fresh  air,  sponge 
baths,  and  vasomotor  and  respiratory  tonics  to  increase  the 
absorption  of  oxygen  and  oxidation  processes,  and  alcohol  in 
the  form  of  wine,  whisky  and  brandy  to  directly  diminish  the 
respiratory  function  and  all  the  oxidations  of  the  living  sys- 
tem?" 

In  his  address  before  the  Medical  Congress  for 
the  Study  of  Alcohol,  held  at  Prohibition  Park, 
Staten  Island,  July  15,  1891,  Dr.  Davis  said  : — 

"  If  the  foregoing  views  regarding  the  effects  of  alcoholic 
liquids  on  the  human  system  in  health,  are  correct,  what  can 
■we  say  concerning  their  value  as  remedies  for  the  treatment  of 
disease  ?  If  it  be  true  that  the  alcohol  they  contain  acts  di- 
rectly upon  the  corpuscular  elements  of  the  blood,  and  so  far 
diminishes  the  metabolic  processes  of  nutrition  and  disintegra- 
tion as  to  lessen  nerve  sensibility  and  heat  production,  and  favor 
tissue  degenerations,  their  rational  application  in  the  treatment 
of  any  form  of  disease  must  be  very  limited.  And  yet  the 
same  errors  and  delusions  concerning  their  use  in  the  treatment 
of  diseases  and  accidents  are  entertained  and  daily  acted  upon 
by  a  large  majority  of  medical  men  as  are  entertained  by 
the  non-professional  part  of  the  public.  Throughout  the 
greater  part  of  our  medical  literature  they  are  represented  as 
stimulating  and  restorative,  capable  of  increasing  the  force  and 
efficiency  of  the  circulation,  and  of  conserving  the  normal  living 
tissues  by  diminishing  their  waste  ;  and  hence  they  are  the  first 
to  be  resorted  to  in  all  cases  of  sudden  exhaustion,  faintness  or 
shock  ;  the  last  to  be  given  to  the  dying ;  and  the  most  constant 
remedies  through  the  most  important  and  protracted  acute 
general  diseases.  Indeed,  it  is  this  position  and  practice  of  the 
profession  that  constitutes,  at  the  present  time,  the  strongest 
influence  in  support  of  all  the  popular  though  erroneous  and  de- 
structive drinking  customs  of  the  people. 


266  ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE. 

"  The  same  anaesthetic  properties  of  t;he  alcohol  that  render 
the  laboring  man  less  conscious  of  the  cold  or  heat  or  weariness, 
also  render  the  sick  man  less  conscious  of  suffering,  either 
mental  or  physical,  and  thereby  deceive  both  him  and  his 
physician  by  the  appearance,  temporarily,  of  more  comfort. 
But  if  administered  during  the  progress  of  fevers  or  acute 
general  disease,  while  it  thus  quiets  the  patient's  restlessness 
and  lessens  his  consciousness  of  suffering,  it  also  directly  dimin 
ishes  the  vasomotor  and  excito-motor  nerve  forces  with  slight 
reduction  of  temperature,  and  steadily  diminishes  both  the 
tissue  metabolism  and  the  excretory  products,  thereby  favoring 
the  retention  in  the  system  of  both  the  specific  causes  of  disease 
and  the  natural  excretory  materials  which  should  have  been 
eliminated  through  the  skin,  lungs,  kidneys  and  other  glandu- 
lar organs.  Although  the  immediate  effect  of  the  remedy  is 
thus  to  give  the  patient  an  appearance  of  more  comfort,  the 
continued  dulling  or  anaesthetic  effect  on  the  nervous  centres, 
the  diminished  oxygenation  of  the  blood,  and  the  continued 
retention  of  morbific  and  excretory  products,  all  serve  to  pro- 
tract the  disease,  increase  molecuiar  degeneration,  and  add  to 
the  number  of  fatal  results. 

"  I  am  well  aware  that  the  foregoing  views,  founded  on  the 
results  of  numerous  and  varied  experimental  researches  and 
well-known  physiological  laws,  and  corroborated  by  a  wide 
clinical  experience,  are  in  direct  conflict  with  the  very  generally 
accepted  doctrine  that  alcohol  is  a  cardiac  tonic,  capable  of  in- 
creasing the  force  and  efficiency  of  the  circulation,  and  there- 
fore of  great  value  in  the  treatment  of  the  lower  grades  of 
general  fevers.  But  there  have  been  many  generally  accepted 
doctrines  in  the  history  of  medicine  that  have  been  proved 
fallacious.  And  the  more  recent  experiments  of  Professors 
Martin,  Sidney  Ringer,  and  Sainsbury,  Reichert,  H.  C.  Wood 
and  others,  have  clearly  demonstrated  that  the  presence  of 
alcohol  in  the  blood  as  certainly  diminishes  the  sensibility  of 
the  vasomotor  and  cardiac  nerves  in  proportion  to  its  quantity 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  267 

until  the  heart  stops,  paralyzed,   as  that  two  and   two  make 
four. 

"  After  an  ample  clinical  field  of  observation  in  both  hospital 
and  private  practice  for  more  than  fifty  years,  and  a  continuous 
study  of  our  medical  literature,  I  am  prepared  to  maintain  the 
position  that  the  ratio  of  mortality  from  all  the  acute  general 
diseases  has  increased  in  direct  proportion  to  the  quantity  of 
alcoholic  remedies  administered  during  their  treatment.  How 
can  we  reasonably  expect  any  other  result  from  the  use  of  an 
agent  that  so  directly  and  uniformly  diminishes  the  cerebral 
respiratory,  cardiac  and  metabolic  functions  of  the  living 
human  body  ?  " 

The  Medical  Pioneer  of  January,  1896,  contained 
a  very  interesting  article  by  Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg  upon 
"  The  Influence  of  Alcohol  upon  Urinary  Toxicity, 
and  its  Relation  to  the  Medical  Use  of  Alcohol." 
He  gives  the  results  of  many  of  his  own  experi- 
ments to  determine  the  effects  of  alcohol  in  hinder- 
ing the  elimination  of  poisonous  matter  by  the 
kidneys.  The  subject  of  one  experiment  was  a 
healthy  man  of  30  years,  weighing  66  kilos.  For 
fifty  days  prior  to  the  experiment  he  had  taken  a 
carefully  regulated  diet,  and  the  urotoxic  coefficient 
!  had  remained  very  nearly  uniform.  The  urine  care- 
fully collected  for  the  first  eight  hours  after  the 
administration  of  8  ounces  of  brandy  diluted  with 
water,  showed  an  enormous  diminution  in  the  uro- 
toxic coefficient,  which  was,  in  fact,  scarcely  more 
than  half  the  normal  coefficient  for  the  individual 
in  question.  The  urine  collected  for  the  second 
period  of  eight  hours  showed  an  increase  of  toxicity, 


268  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

and  that  for  the  third  period  of  eight  hours  showed 
still  further  increase  of  toxicity,  the  coefficient  hav- 
ing nearly  returned  to  its  normal  standard. 

Of  this  Dr.  Kellogg  says  : — 

"  The  bearing  of  this  experiment  upon  the  use  of  alcohol  in 
pneumonia,  typhoid  fever,  erysipelas,  cholera  and  other  infec- 
tious diseases,  will  be  clearly  seen.  In  all  the  maladies  named, 
and  in  nearly  all  other  infectious  diseases,  which  include  the 
greater  number  of  acute  maladies,  the  symptoms  which  give  the 
patient  the  greatest  inconvenience,  and  those  which  have  a  fatal 
termination,  when  such  is  the  result,  are  directly  attributable  to 
the  influence  of  the  toxic  substances  generated  within  the  sys- 
tem of  the  patient  as  the  result  of  the  specific  microbes  to  which 
the  disease  owes  its  origin.  The  activity  of  the  liver  in  destroy- 
ing these  poisons,  and  of  the  kidneys  in  eliminating  them,  are 
the  physiologic  processes  which  stand  between  the  patient  and 
death.  In  a  very  grave  case  of  infectious  disease,  without  this 
destructive  and  eliminative  activity  the  accumulation  of  poison 
within  the  system  would  quickly  reach  a  fatal  point.  The 
symptoms  of  the  patient  vary  for  better  or  worse  in  relation  to 
the  augmentation  or  diminution  of  the  quantity  of  toxic  sub- 
stances within  the  body. 

"  In  view  of  these  facts,  is  it  not  a  pertinent  question  to  ask 
how  alcohol  can  be  of  service  in  the  treatment  of  such  disorders 
as  pneumonia,  typhoid  fever,  cholera,  erysipelas  and  other  in- 
fections, since  it  acts  in  such  a  decided  and  powerful  manner 
in  diminishing  urinary  toxicity— in  other  words,  in  lessening  the 
ability  of  the  kidney  to  eliminate  toxic  substances  ?  In  infec- 
tious diseases  of  every  sort,  the  body  is  struggling  under  the 
influence  of  toxic  agents,  the  result  of  the  action  of  mi- 
crobes. Alcohol  is  another  toxic  agent  of  precisely  the  same 
origin.  Like  other  toxins  resulting  from  like  processes  of  bac- 
terial growth,  its  influence  upon  the  human  organism  is  un- 
friejidfeJt  disturbs  the  vital  processes  ;  it  disturbs  every  vital 

^, 
ITY 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  269 

function,  and,  as  we  have  shown,  in  a  most  marked  degree 
diminishes  the  efficiency  of  the  kidneys  in  the  removal  of  the 
toxins  which  constitute  the  most  active  factor  in  the  diseases 
named,  and  in  others  of  analogous  character.  If  a  patient  is 
struggling  under  the  influence  of  the  pneumococcus,  Eberth's 
'  bacillus,  Koch's  cholera  microbe  or  the  pus-producing  germs 
which  give  rise  to  erysipelatous  inflammation,  his  kidneys  labor- 
ing to  undo,  so  far  as  possible,  the  mischief  done  by  the  invad- 
ing parasites,  by  eliminating  the  poisons  formed  by  them,  what 
good  could  possibly  be  accomplished  by  the  administration  of  a 
drug,  one  of  the  characteristic  effects  of  which  is  to  diminish 
renal  activity,  thereby  diminishing  also  the  quantity  of  poisons 
eliminated  through  this  channel  ?  Is  not  such  a  course  in  the 
highest  degree  calculated  to  add  fuel  to  the  flame  ?  Is  it  not 
placing  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  vital  forces  which  are  al- 
ready hampered  in  their  work  by  the  powerfully  toxic  agents  to 
the  influence  of  which  they  are  subjected  ? 

"  In  his  address  before  the  American  Medical  Association 
at  Milwaukee,  Dr.  Ernest  Hart,  editor  of  the  British 
Medical  Journal,  very  aptly  suggested  in  relation  to  the  treat- 
ment of  cholera,  the  inutility  of  alcohol,  basing  his  suggestion 
upon  the  fact  that  in  a  case  of  cholera,  the  system  of  the  pa- 
tient is  combating  the  specific  poison  which  is  the  product  of 
the  microbe  of  this  disease,  and  hence  is  not  likely  to  be 
aided  by  the  introduction  of  a  poison  produced  by  another 
microbe  ;  namely,  alcohol.  This  logic  seems  very  sound,  and 
-  the  facts  in  relation  to  the  influence  of  alcohol  upon  urinary  tox- 
icity or  renal  activity,  which  are  elucidated  by  our  experiment, 
fully  sustain  this  observation  of  Mr.  Hart. 

M  In  a  recent  number  of  the  British  Medical  Journal,  Dr. 
Lauder  Brunton,  the  eminent  English  physiologist  and  neurolo- 
gist, in  mentioning  the  fact  that  death  from  chloroform  anaes- 
thesia rarely  occurs  in  India,  but  is  not  infrequent  in  England, 
attributed  the  fact  to  the  meat-eating  habits  of  the  English  peo- 
ple, the  natives  of  India  being  almost  strictly  vegetarian  in  diet, 


270  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

partly  from  force  of  circumstances  doubtless,  but  largely  also, 
no  doubt,  as  the  result  of  their  religious  belief,  the  larger  pro- 
portion of  the  population  being  more  or  less  strict  adherents  to 
the  doctrines  of  Buddha,  which  strictly  prohibit  the  use  of  flesh 
foods. 

"  The  theory  advanced  by  Dr.  Lauder  Brunton  in  relation  to 
death  from  chloroform  poisoning,  is  that  the  patient  does  not 
die  directly  from  the  influence  of  chloroform  upon  the  nerve 
centres,  but  that  death  is  due  to  the  influence  of  chloroform 
upon  the  kidneys,  whereby  the  elimination  of  the  ptomaines  and 
leucomaines  naturally  produced  within  the  body,  ceases,  their 
destruction  by  the  liver  also  ceasing,  so  that  the  system  is  sud- 
denly overwhelmed  by  a  great  quantity  of  poison,  and  succumbs 
to  its  influence,  its  power  of  resistance  being  lessened  by  the  in- 
halation of  the  chloroform. 

"  The  affinity  between  alcohol  and  chloroform  is  very  great. 
Both  are  anaesthetics.  Both  chloroform  and  alcohol  are  simply 
different  compounds  of  the  same  radical,  and  the  results  of  our 
experiment  certainly  suggest  the  same  thought  as  that  expressed 
by  Dr.  Brunton.  How  absurd,  then,  is  the  administration  of 
alcohol  in  conditions  in  which  the  highest  degree  of  kidney 
activity  is  required  for  the  elimination  of  toxic  agents  ! 

"  In  a  certain  proportion  of  chronic  cases  there  is  a  tendency 
to  tissue  degeneration.  Modern  investigations  have  given  good 
ground  for  the  belief  that  these  degenerations  are  the  result  of 
the  influence  of  ptomaines,  leucomaines  and  other  poisons  pro- 
duced within  the  body,  upon  the  tissues.  It  is  well  known  that 
many  of  these  toxic  agents,  even  in  very  small  quantity  give 
rise  to  degenerations  of  the  kidney.  It  is  this  fact  which  ex- 
plains the  occurrence  of  nephritis  in  connection  with  diphtheria, 
scarlet  fever  and  other  infectious  maladies.  Dana  has  called 
attention  to  the  probable  role  played  by  ptomaines  produced  in 
the  alimentary  canal  in  the  development  of  organic  disease  of 
the  central  nervous  system. 

"  It  is  thus  apparent  that  the  integrity  of  the   renal  functions 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  2J\ 

is  a  matter  of  as  great  importance  in  chronic  as  in  acute  dis- 
ease, hence  any  agent  which  diminishes  the  efficiency  of  these 
organs  in  ridding  the  system  of  poisons,  either  those  normally 
and  regularly  produced,  or  those  of  an  accidental  or  unusual 
character,  must  be  pernicious  and  dangerous  in  use." 

Among  the  more  recent  findings  of  science  in 
regard  to  the  effects  of  alcohol  are  the  action  of 
this  drug  upon  the  leucocytes  or  "  guardian  cells  " 
of  the  body.  Leucocytes  are  defined  to  be  "  minute, 
nucleated,  colorless  masses  of  protoplasm,  capable 
of  ameboid  movements,  found  swimming  freely  in 
blood  and  lymph,  in  the  reticulum  of  lymphatic 
glands,  and  in  bone-marrow  and  other  connective 
tissue."  The  white  corpuscles  of  the  blood  are  leu- 
cocytes. "The  work  of  these  cells  is  to  prey  upon 
and  take  into  their  substance  bacteria  and  other 
micro-organisms  within  the  blood  and  tissues. 
This  destruction  of  bacteria,  and  other  noxious 
organisms,  has  the  biological  name  of  phago- 
cytosis." 

Dr.  Alonzo  Brown  in  Physician  and  Surgeon  says 
of  phagocytosis : — 

"  Recently  a  brilliant  theory  has  been  projected  into  the 
histological  world.  It  is  the  principle  of  phagocytosis.  The 
beauty  of  it  is  so  great  that  we  are  attracted  by  it,  and  its 
reasonings  have  riveted  general  attention.  It  is  said  that 
certain  cells  have  the  power  to  absorb  and  so  destroy  other 
cells.  This  is  phagocytosis.  It  is  said  that  '  the  cells  which 
are  known  to  possess  phagocytocic  properties  are  the  leu- 
cocytes, mucous  corpuscles,  connective  tissue  cells,  endothelia 
of  blood  vessels  and  lymphatic  vessels,  alveolar  eypithelium  of 


2.J2  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

the  lungs,  and  the  cells  of  the  spleen,  bone,  marrow  and 
lymphatic  glands.'  (Senn).  This  is  a  very  significant  array  of 
colloid  matter  ;  and  it  has  been  repeatedly  affirmed  by  the  high- 
est authorities  that  alcohol  is  poisonous  to  the  colloid  element. 

"  Now,  among  the  most  important  of  the  phagocytes  just 
enumerated  are  the  leucocytes.  They  embrace  and  enfold  the 
pathogenic  germs  with  which  they  come  in  contact  by  what  is  j 
known  as  an  ameboid  force.  They  enclose,  disintegrate  and 
absorb  the  enemy.  It  is  well  known  that  the  moment  the  leu- 
cocytes are  submitted  to  an  alcoholic  solution,  their,  ameboid 
movements  cease,  and  their  function  is  arrested.  It  is  plain 
that  their  phagocytocic  power  is  immediately  destroyed.  It  is 
possible,  also,  that  the  fixed  tissue-cells  are  likewise  impaired 
or  killed  by  alcoholic  imbibition.  How  deleterious,  and  even 
deadly,  must  the  internal  administration  of  alcoholic  liquors  then 
be  in  the  treatment  of  diphtheria,  and  of  other  diseases  having 
a  germinal  origin  ?  It  therefore  follows,  to  my  mind,  that  all  the 
diseases  which  are  the  result  of  germinal  infection,  are  most 
badly  treated  when  alcohol  is  used  in  their  therapy. 

With  extreme  brevity  I  advert  to  another  view  in  the  field. 
It  is  that  of  adynamic  disease.  It  has  been  conclusively  proven 
that  alcohol  decreases  the  muscular  power.  It  decreases  (from 
the  minimum  dose  to  the  maximum)  the  power  of  the  heart  as 
well  as  that  of  all  other  muscles.  I  say  this  has  been  absolutely 
demonstrated  by  Richardson  and  others.  In  death  from  ady- 
namia it  is  through  failure  of  muscle,  that  is,  of  the  heart,  of 
the  scaleni  and  intercostals,  of  the  diaphragm,  and  of  the  laryn- 
geal muscles,  et  cetera.  All  of  the  muscles  may  gradually  fail, 
become  wearied  unto  death.  How  pernicious  then  must 
alcohol  be  in  adding  its  influence  to  bring  about  the  tragic  end  ! 

"  It  is  my  belief  that  it  is  in  diphtheria  that  the  most  dire 
results  are  to  be  observed.  In  that  disease  the  vast  majority 
of  cases  die  by  asthenia,  or  else  by  sudden  failure  of  the  heart. 
To  what  is  this  sudden  cardiac  paralysis  due  ?  The  elucidation 
is  as  follows.      In  the  grave  cases  there  is  almost  invariably  a 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  273 

subnormal  temperature,  together  with  great  muscular  prostra- 
tion. Also  it  is  a  physiological  fact  that  a  decrease  of  the 
temperature  slows  nervous  conduction.  As  the  system  is 
made  colder,  the  nervous  force  flows  slower  and  slower.  In 
diphtheria  the  heart  muscle  is  very  weak,  the  temperature  falls, 
the  lessened  nervous  energy  but  feebly  animates  the  muscular 
fibres,  and  so  actual  paralysis  ensues,  death  closing  the  scene 
almost  instantaneously.  Now,  in  such  a  state  of  imminent 
danger,  brought  about  by  such  causes,  what  could  be  worse 
than  to  administer  an  agent  which  notably  reduces  temper- 
ature, and  at  the  same  time  enfeebles  muscular  power  ?  May 
I  add,  what  could  be  the  remedy  in  such  a  condition  ?  and  I 
answer,  External  heat  freely  applied  to  the  whole  surface  of 
the  body.  This  will  prevent  the  cardiac  paralysis  whenever  it 
is  preventable." 

The  Medical  Pioneer  of  Dec,  1892,  contained  an 
editorial  article  upon  "  The  Toxine  Alcohol,"  which 
deals  with  leucocytes  and  their  functions.  The 
following  is  the  article  : — 

"  Dr.  Broadbent's  introductory  address  at  the  opening  of  the 
session  at  Owen's  College,  Manchester,  deserves  more  attention 
than  most  of  these  formal  deliveries.  He  dwelt  on  the  intel- 
lectual interest  which  attaches  to  the  study  of  medical  science, 
and  illustrated  it,  among  other  ways,  by  the  interest  excited  by 
recent  observations  on  the  action  of  bacilli  and  the  combat 
which  goes  on  between  these  invading  hosts  and  the  guardian 
cells  or  leucocytes  of  the  living  body.  Inflammation  surround- 
ing a  wound  is  regarded  as  caused  by  the  influx  and  multipli- 
cation of  leucocytes  to  engulf  and  destroy  septic  bacilli  which 
have  gained  entrance  from  the  air,  a  '  local  war '  of  defence. 
The  issue  of  this  pitched  battle  will  depend  on  the  relative 
number  and  activity  of  the  respective  hosts.  Inflammation 
round  a  poisoned  wound  is  an  evidence  of  vital  power  and  a 
means  of  protecting  the  system  at  large  from  invasion  and  dev- 


2/4  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

astation.  If  this  first  line  of  defence  is  broken  through,  the 
bacilli  pass  through  the  lymphatic  spaces  and  ducts  to  the 
glands,  and  another  battle  ensues  which  produces  glandular 
swelling  and  inflammation  and  possibly  abscess.  This  second 
line  of  defence  may  be  insufficient  and  then  we  get  general 
septicaemia.  It  is  now  well  proven  that  the  injury  is  done, 
not  by  the  bacilli  themselves  but  by  the  toxines  which  they 
secrete  or  excrete.  Dr.  Broadbent  very  properly  points  out 
that  the  action  of  the  bacilli  of  fever  in  the  body  is  strictly 
comparable  to  the  action  of  yeast  in  a  fermentable  liquid.  The 
yeast  cells  grow  and  multiply  at  the  expense  of  the  sugar,  in  de- 
stroying which  they  produce  alcohol,  carbonic  dioxide  and  other 
substances.  When  the  alcohol  amounts  to  some  17  per  cent,  of 
the  liquid  the  process  is  stopped  by  the  poisonous  action  of  the 
alcohol  on  the  yeast  cells.  In  just  the  same  way  the  toxines 
produced  by  the  bacilli  at  length  stop  their  further  multiplica- 
tion and  put  an  end  to  the  disease.  Alcohol  is  in  fact,  the  tox- 
ine  produced  by  yeast,  and,  like  many  other  toxines,  it  is  not 
only  poisonous  to  cells  which  produce  it,  but  to  any  animal  into 
whose  veins  it  may  happen  to  get. 

"  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  state  of  immunity  which 
one  attack  of  certain  fevers  confers  against  future  attacks 
depends  partly  upon  what  is  called  the  phagocytic  action  of 
leucocytes.  These  have  been  actually  observed  to  draw  into 
their  interior  and  destroy  bacilli  which  would  otherwise  have 
multiplied  and  produced  their  special  effects.  There  can  be 
little  doubt,  either,  that  we  are  continually  taking  into  our 
systems  bacilli  of  all  sorts,  and  that,  again,  disease  is  averted 
by  the  activity  of  the  germ-devouring  leucocytes.  Dr.  Broad- 
bent  describes  an  experiment  which  proves  that  power  of  re- 
sisting disease  is  largely  dependent  on  the  activity  of  these 
cells.  A  rabbit,  having  had  a  certain  quantity  of  bacilli  in- 
jected under  its  skin,  suffers  from  inflammation  at  the  spot,  and 
perhaps  abscess,  but  recovers.  At  the  same  time,  another 
rabbit  is  treated  in  precisely  the  same  way,  but,  simultaneously^ 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  2J% 

a  dose  of  chloral  is  injected  into  another  part  of  the  body.  The 
chloral,  circulating  in  the  blood,  is  known  to  paralyze  leuco- 
cytes, and,  as  a  result  of  this,  they  do  not  collect  and  wage  war 
on  the  bacilli  injected  under  the  skin ;  there  is  very  little  local 
reaction,  the  bacilli  get  free  course  into  the  lymph  and  blood, 
and  the  animal  dies.  But,  in  the  words  of  Dr.  Broadbent, 
'  alcohol  in  excess  has  a  similar  action  on  the  leucocytes,  and 
this,  as  well  as  the  deteriorating  influence  of  chronic  alcoholism 
on  the  tissues,  predisposes  to  septic  infection.  A  single  de- 
bauch, therefore,  may  open  the  door  to  fever  or  erysipelas.' 
A  similiar  experiment  of  Doyen  confirms  this.  He  found  that 
guinea  pigs  can  be  killed  by  the  cholera  microbe,  when  intro- 
duced by  the  mouth,  if  a  dose  of  alcohol  has  been  previously 
administered.  It  has  been  the  general  testimony  of  observers 
in  cholera  epidemics  that  those  addicted  to  much  alcohol  are 
far  more  liable  to  fatal  attacks.  But  while  large  doses  of 
alcohol  are,  of  course,  more  obviously  injurious,  it  would  be 
absurd  to  imagine  that  lesser  quantities  are  entirely  without 
influence  in  the  same  direction.  It  has,  indeed,  been  shown  by 
Dr.  Ridge,  that  even  infinitesimal  quantities  of  alcohol,  such  as 
one  part  in  5,000,  cause  a  more  rapid  multiplication  of  the 
bacillus  subtilis  and  other  bacilli  of  decomposition,  while,  by 
the  same  quantities,  the  growth  of  both  animal  and  vegetable 
protoplasm  is  retarded.  Hence  there  can  be  no  longer  any 
question  that  alcohol  renders  the  body  more  liable  to  conquest 
by  invading  microbes,  less  able  to  resist  and  destroy  them. 
Alcohol,  a  toxine  injurious  to  living  cells,  is  destroyed  or  re- 
moved from  the  body  as  fast  as  nature  can  effect  it,  but  while 
it  remains,  and  while  able  to  affect  the  cells  at  all,  its  action  is 
detrimental  to  healthy  growth  and  healthy  life,  and  the  less  we 
take  of  such  an  agent  the  better  for  us.  This  is  a  dictum  which 
it  becomes  the  profession  to  enunciate  far  and  wide.  '  The 
less,  the  better  '  is  a  watchword  which  all  may  use,  and  the 
wise  will  interpret  it  in  a  way  which  will  infallibly  preserve  them 
altogether  from  all  possible  danger  from  such  a  source." 


276  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

On  the  sixteenth  of  December,  1897,  Dr.  Sims 
Woodhead,  president  of  the  British  Medical  Tem- 
perance Association,  gave  a  masterly  address  in 
London  upon  "  Recent  Researches  on  the  Action 
1  of  Alcohol."  The  lecture  was  illustrated  by- 
lantern  slides.  From  the  report  given  in  The  Medi- 
cal Temperance  Review  of  Jan.,  1898,  the  following  is 
culled : — 

"  In  a  series  of  drawings  of  kidney  you  will  notice  first  that 
there  is  a  condition  known  as  cloudy  swelling ;  this  is  one  of 
the  first  changes  that  can  be  observed.  Notice  the  character- 
istic features  of  this  cloudy  swelling  in  the  cells  of  all  these 
specimens.  The  large  swollen  cells  are  granular,  and  very  fre- 
quently there  is  a  granular  mass  in  the  lumen  of  the  tubule. 
In  some  cases  the  cells  are  so  much  swollen  that  the  lumen  of 
the  tubule  is  represented  merely  by  a  '  star-shaped '  radiating 
chink.  The  nucleus  is  usually  somewhat  obscured,  that  this 
alcoholic  cloudy  swelling  (similar  to  that  met  with  as  the  result  of 
the  administration  of  certain  poisons)  is  the  first  change  observed 
in  the  parenchymatous  cells  of  the  organs  of  animals  that  have 
died  of  acute  alcoholic  poisoning.  This  condition,  unless  the 
cause  is  removed,  goes  on  to  a  condition  of  fatty-degeneration,, 
as  shown  in  the  next  specimen  in  which  we  have,  in  addition 
to  the  granular  appearance  of  the  protoplasm  of  the  cell,  a  de~ 
position  of  masses  of  fat  in  and  at  the  expense  of  this  proton- 
plasm. 

"  There  is  another  series  of  changes  to  which  I  wish  to  draw 
your  attention.  In  the  tubules  of  the  kidney  we  have,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  granular  appearance  of  the  protoplasm  of  the  cells, 
an  increase  in  the  number  of  leucocytes,  and  connective  tissue 
cells  between  the  tubules  around  the  glomeruli  and  along  the 
course  of  the  blood-vessels.  This  condition  of  small  cell  infil- 
tration, we  know,  is  constantly  associated  with  inflammatory 


ALCOHOL  AS  A  MEDICINE.  277 

conditions  of  the  kidney  as  in  other  organs.  Here  then  are  the 
changes  in  the  epithelium  plus  increase  in  the  number  of  leuco- 
cytes. 

"  I  show  you  too  a  specimen  of  heart  muscle,  in  which  the 
granular  degeneration,  or  cloudy  swelling  is  well  marked 
whilst  here  and  there  the  process  is  going  on  to  fatty  degenera- 
tion, similar  to  that  seen  in  the  kidney.  Here  again,  then,  the 
active  elements  of  the  organ  are  becoming  broken  down,  or,  at 
any  rate,  losing  their  normal  structure  and  affording  evidence 
of  fundamental  changes  in  these  cells.  Such  changes  are  set 
up,  not  by  any  one  poison  alone,  or  by  any  single  disease 
toxin,  but  by  members  of  many  groups  of  poisons,  by  alcohols, 
ethers,  etc.  indeed  by  very  various  poisons — animal,  vegetable 
and  mineral. 

f  Now,  it  is  a  peculiar  fact,  as  shown  by  Massart,  Bordet  and 
others,  in  researches  on  chemiotaxis,  that  nearly  all  these 
poisons  have  the  power  of  repelling  leucocytes,  and  of  seriously 
interfering  with  them  in  the  performance  of  their  functions,  and 
this  power  assumes  a  special  significance  in  connection  with 
our  subject  this  afternoon. 

"  Now,  two  of  the  great  functions  of  leucocytes  under  ordi- 
nary conditions  are  those  of  policing  and  scavenging.  Massart 
and  Bordet  showed,  under  the  action  of  certain  substances, 
alcohol  amongst  others,  these  functions  are  lost,  but  following 
up  Metchnikoff  and  others  they  observed  that  after  a  time  these 
same  leucocytes  became  accustomed  to  the  presence  of  these 
poisons,  gradually  becoming  •  acclimatized  '  as  it  were.  At 
first  paralyzed  or  repelled,  they  after  a  time  pluck  up  courage  to 
attack  the  invading  substances  and  carry  on  or  renew  their 
accustomed  work  of  scavenging  ;  they  try  to  get  rid  of  both 
poisons  and  poison-producers,  and  even  acquire  the  power  of 
forming  substances  (anti-toxins)  which  can  neutralize  the  poison 
and  allow  the  cells  to  devote  their  energy  to  doing  their  own 
proper  work. 

"  Here  are  drawings  of  minute  abscesses  that  have  formed 


2/8  ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE. 

in  the  wall  of  the  heart.  We  see  at  once  the  part  that  the  leuco- 
cytes play  in  attacking  micro-organisms,  and  of  localizing  their 
action.  Look  at  the  blood-vessel  in  the  wall  of  the  heart  with 
its  plug  of  micro-organism  (staphylococci)  in  the  centre  of  a  clear 
space ;  here  the  leucocytes  are  not  numerous,  indeed  they  are 
very  sparsely  scattered,  and  appear  to  have  been  driven  back 
by  the  organisms  or  their  toxics.  Then  a  little  distance  away 
from  the  toxin  and  toxin-forming  organisms,  the  leucocytes  are 
coming  up  in  large  numbers,  forming  a  sort  of  protecting  army, 
as  it  were.  This  is  known  as  leucocytosis.  In  the  small 
patent  vessels  around  this  commencing  abscess  numerous 
leucocytes,  far  in  excess  of  the  usual  proportion,  may  be  seen 
— the  nearer  the  abscess,  the  more  numerous  they  become. 
Thus  the  leucocytes  make  their  way  to  what  is  to  become  the 
wall  of  the  abscess,  and  form  a  layer  around  a  mass  of  micro- 
organisms, localizing,  or  attempting  to  localize,  such  mass. 
So  long  as  the  leucocytes  can  make  their  way  to  this  mass, 
and  shut  it  off  from  the  surrounding  tissue,  so  long  we  shall 
have  no  extension  of  the  abscess. 

"  Now,  if  you  add  something — alcohol  in  the  case  we  are 
considering — which  not  only  exerts  a  negative  chemiotaxic 
action— i.  e.,  which  drives  the  leucocyte  away— but  which,  as 
we  have  seen,  also  causes  degeneration  of  nerve,  muscle  and 
epithelial  cells,  shall  we  not  injure  the  infected  patient  both 
directly  and  indirectly  by  interfering  with  the  return  of  the 
leucocytes  driven  away,  by  diminishing  or  altering  the  func- 
tional activity  of  these  cells,  and  indirectly  by  interfering  with 
the  excretion  of  the  poisons  (owing,  as  we  have  seen,  to  a 
degenerated  condition  of  the  secretory  epithelium)  ?  Have  we 
not,  in  fact,  a  cumulative  action  of  two  substances,  either  of 
which  alone  would  do  damage,  but  not  in  the  same  proportion 
as  do  the  two  when  acting  together. 

"  Now  let  us  see  what  we  may  learn  from  a  series  of  experi- 
ments carried  out  by  Dr.  Abbott,  working  in  the  Laboratory  of 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  279 

Hygiene  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  under  the  auspices 
of  the  committee  of  fifty,  to  investigate  the  Alcohol  Question. 

"  These  are  his  conclusions  : — 

1.  "  That  the  normal  vital  resistance  of  rabbits  to  infection  by 
streptococcus  pyogenes  is  markedly  diminished  through  the 
influence  of  alcohol  when  given  daily  to  the  stage  of  acute 
intoxication.  2.  That  a  similar,  though  by  no  means  so  con- 
spicuous, diminution  of  resistance  to  infection  and  intoxication 
by  the  bacillus  coli  communis  also  occurs  in  rabbits  subjected 
to  the  same  influences. 

"  Throughout  these  experiments,  with  few  exceptions,  it  will 
be  seen  that  the  alcoholized  animals  not  only  showed  the 
effects  of  the  inoculations  earlier  than  did  the  non-alcoholized 
rabbits,  but  in  the  case  of  the  streptococcus  inoculations,  the 
lesions  produced  (formation  of  miliary  abscesses)  were  much 
more  pronounced  than  are  those  that  usually  follow  inoculations 
with  this  organism. 

"  With  regard  to  the  predisposing  influence  of  the  alcohol, 
one  is  constrained  to  believe  that  it  is  in  most  cases  the  result 
of  structural  alterations  consequent  upon  its  direct  action  on 
the  tissues,  though  in  a  number  of  animals  no  such  alterations 
could  be  made  out  by  microscopic  examinations.  I  am  in- 
clined, however,  to  the  belief,  in  the  light  of  the  work  of 
Berkley  and  Friedenwald,  done  under  the  direction  of  Pro- 
fessor Welch,  in  the  pathological  laboratory  of  the  Johns 
Hopkins  University,  that  a  closer  study  of  the  tissues  of  these 
animals  would  have  revealed  in  all  of  them  structural  changes 
of  such  a  nature  as  to  indicate  disturbances  of  important  vital 
functions  of  sufficient  gravity  fully  to  account  for  the  loss  of 
normal  resistance. 

"  Following  up  Dr.  Abbott's  experiments,  Dr.  Delearde, 
working  in  Calmette's  laboratory  in  the  Institut  Pasteur  at 
Lille,  made  a  series  of  observations  which  are,  from  many 
points  of  view,  of  very  great   interest  and  importance  as  he 


28o  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

attacks  it  from  an  entirely  new  standpoint,  one  that  will,  I 
hope,  ere  long,  be  taken  up  by  those  working  in  this  country. 
It  has  already  been  demonstrated  that  '  alcoholics '  suffer  far 
more  seriously  from  microbic  affections  than  do  those  of  sober 
life,  and  it  is  now  accepted  that  amongst  them  the  mortality 
from  this  class  of  disease  is  higher  than  amongst  those  who 
are  not  accustomed  to  take  alcohol  regularly  or  to  excess. 

"  It  is  pointed  out,  as  most  of  us  have  from  time  to  time  had 
the  opportunity  of  observing,  that,  taking  pneumonia  as  an 
example  of  this  class  of  disease,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
alcoholic  patient  has  not  merely  an  appreciably  smaller  chance 
for  recovery,  but  an  apparently  slight  attack  becomes  one  in 
which  the  chances  of  recovery  come  to  be  against  the  patient 
rather  than  in  his  favor.  I  well  remember  when  I  was  House 
Physician  in  the  Royal  Infirmary  at  Edinburgh  that  Dr.  Muir- 
head,  who  almost  invariably  treated  his  pneumonic  patients 
without  alcohol,  used  to  say  that  an  ordinary  case  of  acute 
pneumonia  should  always  recover  under  careful  treatment,  but 
that  cases  of  pneumonia  in  '  alcoholics '  were  always  most 
anxious  cases  and  in  every  way  unsatisfactory.  (Slides  were 
shown  on  screen  to  illustrate  the  changes  taking  place  in  pneu- 
monia, the  conditions  of  leucocytosis,  and  the  very  important 
part  which  leucocytes  play  in  the  process  of  '  clearing  up  '  dur- 
ing the  course  of  the  patient's  recovery).  Dr.  Delearde  in  an 
admirable  summary  gives  the  principal  features  of  pneumonia 
in  alcoholics.  He  describes  it  as  running  a  comparatively 
prolonged  course,  as  being  often  accompanied  by  a  violent 
delirium,  following  which  is  a  period  of  prostration  or  of  coma  ; 
even  in  those  who  recover,  abscesses  frequently  'occur  in  the 
liver,  or  in  other  organs.  He  also  points  out  that  there  may  be 
a  similar  chain  of  events  in  other  infective  conditions  such  as 
erysipelas  and  typhoid  fever,  but  as  he  insists  that,  until  Abbott's 
experiments  on  the  streptococcus,*  staphylococcus  *  and  bacter- 
ium coli,  *  in  alcoholized  and  non-alcoholized   animals,  little 

*  Microbes  or  bacteria  of  different  kinds. 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  28l 

attempt  has  been  made  to  indicate  the  mechanism,  or,  at  any 
rate,  the  process  by  which  alcoholized  individuals  are  rendered 
more  susceptible  to  the  invasion  and  action  of  micro-organisms. 
"  As  we  have  already  seen,  Abbott's  experiments  prove  beyond 
doubt  that  attenuated  disease-producing  organisms,  which  in 
healthy  animals  do  not  kill  immediately,  bring  about  a  fatal 
result  when  the  animal  has  previously  been  treated  with  alco- 
hol. In  order  to  determine  which  was  the  most  important 
factor  in  the  destruction  or  weakening  of  the  resisting  agents 
in  the  body,  Dr.  Delearde  conceived  the  idea  of  experimenting 
with  those  diseases  in  which  it  has  been  found  possible  to  pro- 
duce, artificially,  as  it  were,  and  under  controlled  conditions,  an 
immunity  or  insusceptibility  in  healthy  animals.  He  carried 
out  a  series  of  experiments  on  rabbits,  immunizing  against  and 
infecting  with  the  virus  of  hydrophobia,  tetanus  and  anthrax.* 
To  these  rabbits  he  first  administered  a  quantity  of  alcohol, 
from  6  to  8  c.  c.  at  first,  and  gradually  rises  to  10  c.  c.  doses 
per  diem. 

"  There  is  in  the  first  instance  a  slight  falling  off  in  weight  of 
the  animal,  but  after  a  time  this  ceases,  and  the  animal  may 
again  become  heavier,  until  the  original  weight  is  reached.  He 
then  took  a  series  of  animals  and  vaccinated  them  against 
hydrophobia.  In  one  set  the  animals  were  afterwards  alco- 
holized and  then  injected  with  a  considerable  quantity  of  viru- 
lent rabic  cord.  It  was  here  found  that  immunity  against 
rabies  had  not  been  lost. 

"  In  a  second  set  the  vaccination  and  alcoholization  were  car- 
ried on  simultaneously,  a  fatal  dose  (as  proved  by  control  ex- 
periment) of  rabic  cord  was  then  injected,  when  it  was  found 
that  little  or  no  immunity  had  been  acquired.  In  a  third  series 
the  alcohol  was  stopped  before  the  immunizing  process  was 
commenced.     In  this  case  marked  immunity  was  acquired. 

"  As  regards  rabies,  then,  acute  alcoholism,  especially  when 

*  Carbuncle. 


282  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

continued  for  comparatively  short  periods,  simply  has  the  effect 
of  preventing  the  acquisition  of  immunity  when  alcohol  is  ad- 
ministered during  the  period  when  the  immunizing  process 
ought  to  be  going  on.  This  indicates  that  the  action  of  the 
alcohol  in  acute  alcoholism  is  direct,  and  that  although  its 
administration  prevents  the  acquisition  of  immunity  it  does  not 
alter  the  cells  so  materially  that  they  cannot  regain  some  of 
their  original  powers,  whilst  once  the  immunity  has  been  gained 
by  the  cells,  alcohol  cannot,  immediately,  so  fundamentally 
alter  them  that  they  lose  the  immunity  they  have  already 
acquired.  When  we  come  to  the  consideration  of  the  case  of 
tetanus,  however,  we  are  carried  a  step  further.  Dr.  Delearde 
repeating  his  immunizing  and  alcoholizing  experiments,  but 
now  working  with  tetanus  virus  in  place  of  rabic  virus,  found — 
and,  perhaps,  here  it  may  be  as  well  to  give  his  own  words  : — 

(r)  "  *  That  animals  vaccinated  against  tetanus  and  afterwards 
alcoholized  lose  their  immunity  against  tetanus ; 

(2)  "  '  That  animals  vaccinated  against  tetanus  and  at  the  same 
time  alcoholized  do  not  readily  acquire  immunity ; 

(3)  "  *  That  animals  first  alcoholized  and  then  vaccinated  may 
acquire  immunity  against  tetanus  if  alcohol  is  suppressed  from 
the  commencement  of  the  process  of  vaccination.' 

**  In  the  case  of  anthrax  too,  as  we  gather  from  another 
series  of  experiments,  it  is  almost  impossible  to  confer  immun- 
ity, if  the  animal  is  alcoholized  during  the  time  that  it  is  being 
vaccinated,  and  although  the  animals,  first  alcoholized  and  then 
vaccinated,  may  acquire  a  certain  amount  of  immunity,  they 
rapidly  lose  condition  and  are  certainly  more  ill  than  non- 
alcoholized  animals  vaccinated  simultaneously. 

"  We  have  already  mentioned  that  Massart  and  Bordet  some 
years  ago  pointed  out  that  alcohol,  even  in  very  dilute  solutions, 
exerts  a  very  active  negative  chemiotaxis,  i.  e.,  it  appears  to 
have  properties  by  which  leucocytes  are  repelled  or  driven 
away  from  its  neighborhood  and   actions.     Alcohol  thus  pre- 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  283 

vents  the  cells  from  attacking  invading  bodies  or  of  reacting  in 
the  presence  of  the  toxins  which  also,  as  is  well  known,  exert  a 
more  or  less  marked  negative  chemiotaxis,  i.  e.,  the  cells  appear 
to  be  paralyzed.  In  all  diseases,  then,  in  which  the  leucocytes 
help  to  remove  an  invading  organism  or  in  which  they  have  the 
power  of  reacting  or  of  carrying  on  their  functions  in  the  pres- 
ence of  a  toxin,  we  should  expect  that  alcohol  would  to  a  cer- 
tain extent  deprive  them  of  this  power  or  interfere  with  their 
capacity  for  acquiring  a  greater  resisting  power  or  of  reinforc- 
ing the  powers  of  resistance.  It  appears  indeed  to  reinforce 
the  poison  formed  by  pathogenic  organisms.  Dr.  Delearde 
maintains  moreover  that  chronic  alcoholism  increases  enor- 
mously the  difficulty  of  rendering  an  animal  immune  to  anthrax, 
whilst  as  those  who  have  had  any  experience  of  cases  of 
anthrax  know  full  well  alcoholics,  whether  acute  or  chronic, 
manifest  a  remarkable  susceptibility  both  as  regards  attacks  of 
anthrax  and  the  fatality  of  the  disease  when  once  contracted. 
Further  as  clinical  proof  of  the  correctness  of  another  of  these 
sets  of  experiments,  Dr.  Delearde  instances  two  cases  of  rabies 
which  have  come  under  observation  in  the  Institut  Pasteur — 
one,  a  man  of  30  years  of  age,  of  intemperate  habits  who  after 
a  complete  treatment  of  18  days  after  a  bite  in  the  hand  died  of 
hydrophobia  ;  the  other,  a  child  of  13  years  who  was  bitten  on  the 
face  by  the  same  dog  that  had  attacked  the  other  patient,  and 
on  the  same  day — who  underwent  the  same  treatment  re- 
mained perfectly  well.  In  this  case  the  more  severe  bite  (the 
face  being  the  most  serious  position  in  which  a  person  can  be 
bitten)  was  received  by  the  child ;  indeed  the  intemperate  habits 
of  the  man,  who  even  took  alcohol  during  treatment,  appear  to 
have  been  the  only  more  serious  factor  in  his  case  as  compared 
with  that  of  the  child. 

"  From  all  this  Dr.  Delearde  draws  the  practical  conclusion 
that  patients  who  have  been  bitten  by  a  mad  dog  should  as  far 
as  possible  abstain  from  the  use  of  alcohol  not  only  during  the 
process  of  treatment,  but  also  for  some  time  afterwards,  even 


284  ALCOHOL  AS  A  MEDICINE. 

for  a  period  of  eight  months,  during  which  period,  apparently, 
increase  of  immunity  may  be  going  on.  Beyond  this  he  main- 
tains that  doctors  often  commit  a  grave  error  in  administering 
strong  doses  of  alcohol  to  patients  suffering  from  certain  infec- 
tious diseases  such  as  pneumonia,  or  from  certain  intoxications 
such  as  those  produced  by  snake-bite,  during  which  an  increase 
in  the  number  of  leucocytes  appear  to  be  a  necessary  part  of 
any  process  that  leads  to  the  cure  of  the  patient.  Finally,  he 
points  out  how  necessary  it  is  that  we  should  respect  the  integ- 
rity of  the  leucocytes  in  the  presence  of  microbic  infections  or 
intoxications.  We  may  accept  these  statements  all  the  more 
readily  as  Dr.  Delearde  states  that  '  although  we  must  recognize 
that  small  doses  of  dilute  alcoholic  beverages  are  indicated  in 
certain  cases  where  it  is  necessary  to  stimulate  the  nervous 
system,  one  must  guard  oneself  against  an  abuse  which  may 
certainly  be  prejudicial  to  the  putting  into  operation  of  the 
mechanism  of  defence  against  the  organisms  of  disease.' 

"  In  so  far  as  these  conclusions  rest  on  a  series  of  exact  ex- 
periments we  are  justified  in  accepting  them  as  being  a  most 
valuable  contribution  to  the  question  ;  where  there  is  no  experi- 
mental basis,  we  must  exercise  our  own  judgment.  To  show 
the  very  strong  impression  that  exists  that  there  is  some  con- 
nection between  severe  cases  of  pneumonia  and  alcohol  I  may 
mention  that  the  other  day  I  heard  a  gentleman  (not  a  medical 
man)  say,  '  It  is  well  known  that  most  men  (of  a  certain  pro- 
fession) die  from  alcoholism.'  When  asked  to  explain  he  said, 
•  They  all  die  from  cirrhosis  or  pneumonia,  and  if  those  condi- 
tions are  not  due  to  alcoholism,  what  is  ?  ' 

"  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  in  addition  to  its  specific  action, 
alcohol  has  a  general  action— the  mal-nutrition,  which  is  usually 
associated  with  the  use  of  alcohol,  especially  as  a  result  of  its 
action  on  the  mucous  membranes  of  the  stomach,  etc." 

That  the  "  guardian  cells  "  of  the  body  play  a  part 
in  a  considerable  number  of  diseases  was  illustrated 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  285 

by  Dr.  Woodhead  by  drawings  and  photographs, 
shown  on  the  lantern  screen.  The  photographs  in- 
cluded cells  containing  anthrax,  typhoid  and  tuber- 
cle bacilli,  the  spirilla  of  relapsing  fever,  specimens 
from  cases  of  anthrax.  Specimens  were  shown  in 
which  the  cells  were  actually  ingesting  and  digest- 
ing the  specific  micro-organisms.  In  a  case  of  ty- 
phoid, showing  large  masses  of  typhoid  bacilli  in 
one  of  Peyer's  patches,  there  were  seen  certain  of 
the  cells  which  contained  the  typhoid  bacilli,  some 
of  them  undergoing  degenerative  changes,  and 
showing  unequal  standing. 

Of  the  researches  made  by  Dr.  Abbott  referred 
to  in  the  foregoing  lecture  Dr.  N.  S.  Davis  says : — 

"  Thus  we  have  another  and  direct  positive  demonstration  of 
the  fact  that  the  presence  of  alcohol  in  living  bodies  not  only 
impairs  all  the  physiological  processes,  but  also  impairs  their 
vital  resistance  to  the  effects  of  all  other  poisons.  It  was 
hardly  necessary,  however,  to  trouble  the  rabbits  to  obtain 
proof  of  this ;  for  such  evidence  may  be  found  in  abundance 
by  examining  the  vital  statistics  of  every  civilized  country.  The 
late  Frank  H.  Hamilton,  in  his  valuable  work  on  military 
,  hygiene,  gives  an  interesting  account  of  an  experiment  executed, 
not  on  a  few  rabbits,  but  on  whole  regiments  of  human  beings, 
who  were  being  exposed  to  the  inhibition,  not  of  the  strep- 
tococcus pyogenes,  but  to  the  infections  of  malarial  and  typho- 
malaria  fever.  And,  as  many  were  attacked  with  sickness,  it 
was  thought  by  some  of  those  in  authority  that  if  the  soldiers 
were  given  a  specified  ration  of  alcoholic  liquor  two  or  three 
times  a  day,  it  might  enable  them  to  resist  the  morbid  influ- 
ences to  which  they  were  exposed.  The  proposed  ration  was 
accordingly  ordered,  and  Dr.  Hamilton  informs  us  that  the 


286  ALCOHOL  AS  A    MEDICINE. 

soldiers  taking  the  liquor  ration  succumbed  to  the  morbific 
influences  surrounding  them  so  much  more  rapidly  than  before, 
that  in  less  than  sixty  days  the  order  was  countermanded,  and 
the  liquor  ration  stopped.  And  that  eminent  surgeon  and 
sanitarian  added,  with  peculiar  emphasis,  that  he  wished  never 
to  see  the  same  experiment  tried  again." 

Dr.  J.  J.  Ridge,  of  London,  has  learned  through 
his  experiments  that  alcohol  not  only  hinders  the 
leucocytes  in  their  war  upon  disease  germs,  but  also 
tends  to  the  multiplication  of  germs.  Of  this  he 
says : — 

"  The  antagonism  of  alcohol  to  the  fundamental  functions  of 
life  is  further  exhibited  by  its  action  on  the  cellular  elements  of 
living  tissues  and  the  free  cells  or  leucocytes  of  the  blood.  Dr. 
Lionel  Beale  long  ago  pointed  out  how  it  affected  the  proto- 
plasm of  cells,  and  diminished  the  movements  of  amoebae,  to 
which  leucocytes  are  apparently  analogous. 

"  But  while  alcohol  is  thus  injurious  to  living  protoplasm,  or 
constructive  protoplasm  as  it  may  be  called,  that  which  builds 
up,  and  forms  all  kinds  of  structures,  and  living  beings  of  all 
higher  types,  I  accidentally  discovered  that  in  minute  quantities, 
under  about  one  per  cent.,  and  even  in  such  almost  incredible 
amounts  as  I  part  in  100,000.  (iV  millilitre  in  10  litres)  it  favors 
the  growth  and  multiplication  of  many  microbes  whose  func- 
tion is  antagonistic  to  the  protoplasm  of  organized  beings,  and 
which  may  therefore  be  called  destructive  protoplasm.  We 
know  that  these  microbes  are  kept  at  bay  by  the  vitality  of  the 
tissues  :  if  this  vitality  is  lowered  they  may  prevail  :  as  soon  as 
life  departs  they  set  to  work,  and  decomposition  is  the  result. 
It  is,  therefore,  not  very  surprising  that  an  agent,  like  alcohol, 
which,  we  have  seen,  lowers  the  vitality  of  constructive  pro- 
toplasm, should,  on  the  other  hand  increase  the  vitality  of  de- 
structive protoplasm.     At  any  rate  such  is  the  fact.     In  the 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  287 

presence  of  these  minute  quantities  of  alcohol,  decomposition 
goes  on  more  rapidly,  and  the  micrococci  and  bacilli,  thrive  and 
swarm  more  abundantly.  This  is  easily  demonstrable  by  the 
more  rapid,  and  thicker,  cloudiness  of  any  clear  decomposable 
liquor  in  the  course  of  a  day  or  two,  or  in  a  few  days,  according 
to  circumstances.  But  I  have  demonstrated  the  more  rapid 
multiplication  of  some  forms  by  means  of  plate  cultivations,  of 
which  I  show  specimens.*  It  is  true  of  the  bacteria  of  decom- 
position, of  the  streptococci,  and  staphylococci  of  pus,  and  of 
diphtheria.  Time  alone  has  been  wanting  to  demonstrate  this 
in  other  cases,  which  I  hope  to  do." 

The  Medical  Week  some  time  ago  contained  this 
paragraph  : — 

"  Dr.  Viala,  in  collaboration  with  Dr.  Charrin,  says  :  *  I  have 
carried  out  a  series  of  researches  on  the  toxicity  of  various  al- 
coholic beverages  in  common  use,  such  as  wines  and  brandies 
of  all  brands,  from  those  which  are  reputed  the  best  to  those  of 
very  inferior  quality.  All  these  products  have  been  analyzed 
with  the  greatest  care.  Our  experiments  were  carried  out  on 
fifty  animals.  Intravenous  injections  confirm  Dr.  Daremberg's 
statement  that  liquors  considered  as  the  best  are  the  most  toxic, 
more  particularly  as  regards  their  immediate  effects.'  " 

Although  the  foregoing  statement  directs  the 
reader's  attention  to  the  comparative  effects  of  dif- 
ferent alcoholic  liquors,  it  also  plainly  implies  sev- 
eral facts  of  great  importance.  The  first  is,  that  all 
alcoholic  liquors,  fermented  or  distilled,  are  toxic 
or  poisonous  ;  and  the  more  pure  alcohol  they  con- 
tain, the  more  poisonous  are  they,  the  qualities  of 
liquor  differing  only  in  the  rapidity  of  their  injuri- 
ous effects. 

In  the  same  number  of  the  Medical  Week,  Pro- 


288  ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE. 

fessor  Grehant  states  that  after  injecting  a  quantity 
of  alcohol  into  the  venous  circulation  of  a  dog  equal 
to  one  twenty-fifth,  or  four  per  cent.,  of  the  esti- 
mated weight  of  the  blood  of  the  animal,  he  found 
by  several  analyses  at  different  times  that  it  re- 
quired "  a  little  over  twenty-three  hours  for  com- 
plete elimination  of  the  alcohol  from  the  blood." 
If  we  consider  these  results  obtained  by  Viala, 
Charrin,  Daremberg  and  Grehant,  with  those  ob- 
tained by  Dr.  A.  C.  Abbott,  showing  the  direct  ef- 
fect of  alcohol  in  diminishing  the  normal  vital 
resistance  of  the  living  body  to  infection,  we  see 
excellent  reasons  why  the  liberal  use  of  alcohol  in 
the  treatment  of  such  infectious  diseases  as  diphthe- 
ria, typhoid  fever  and  pneumonia,  under  the  sup- 
position that  it  was  a  cardiac  tonic,  has  resulted  in 
so  great  a  mortality  as  from  thirty  to  sixty  per  cent. 

Dr.  A.  Pearce  Gould,  a  London  hospital  surgeon 
of  the  first  rank,  has  made  special  study  of  the 
surgery  of  the  blood-vessels,  and  of  the  chest.  He 
was  one  of  the  earliest  to  practice  and  advocate  the 
careful  removal  of  the  axillary  glands  in  all  oper- 
ations for  cancer  of  the  breast. 

He  is  a  strong  believer  in  the  value  of  total 
abstinence  as  promoting  robust  health  of  body  and 
mind.  He  regards  the  value  of  alcohol  in  disease 
as  exceedingly  small,  and  prescribes  it  only  very 
rarely.  He  thinks  that  alcohol  increases  the 
activity  of  cancer  and  other  malignant  growths,  an 
opinion  which  is  of  great  importance  from  one  with 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  289 

such  exceptional  opportunities  for  observation  in 
these  complaints. 

Dr.  N.  S.  Davis  in  the  American  Medical  Tem- 
perance Quarterly  of  January,  1895,  gives  reports  of 
cases  which  came  under  his  observation  as  a  con- 
sulting physician,  where  the  use  of  alcoholics 
throughout  an  extended  illness  favored  the  con- 
tinuance of  delirium,  or  mild  mental  disorder,  after 
convalescence  was  established.  In  each  case  the 
withdrawal  of  the  alcohol  was  followed  by  a  cessa- 
tion of  the  mental  delusion. 

One  of  these  cases  may  be  taken  as  an  example  : — 

"  The  third  case  was  that  of  a  woman  over  sixty  years  of  age, 
who  had  suffered  from  a  mild  grade  of  fever  and  protracted 
diarrhoea,  somewhat  resembling  a  mild  grade  of  enteric  typhoid 
fever. 

"  As  she  became  much  reduced  in  strength  during  the  latter 
part  of  her  diarrhoea,  her  friends  began  to  give  her  wine,  and 
sometimes  stronger  alcoholic  drink,  under  the  popular  delusion 
that  these  could  strengthen  her.  Her  mind  soon  became  wan- 
dering, and  she  was  troubled  with  illusions,  which  were  attrib- 
uted to  her  weakness,  and  the  so-called  stimulants  were 
increased.  But  the  mental  disorder  increased  also,  and  con- 
tinued after  the  fever  and  diarrhoea  had  ceased,  until  the  ques- 
tion was  raised  concerning  the  propriety  of  her  removal  to  an 
asylum  for  the  insane. 

"  Being  consulted  at  that  time,  and  listening  to  an  accurate  his- 
tory of  the  case,  I  suggested  that  the  anaesthetic  effect  of  the  alco- 
hol on  the  cerebral  hemispheres,  in  connection  with  its  effect  on 
the  hemoglobin,  and  other  elements  of  the  blood,  in  lessening 
the  reception  and  internal  distribution  of  oxygen,  might  be 
the  cause  of  both  the  perpetuation  of  her  weakness,  and  her 


29O  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

mental  disorder.  I  advised  a  trial  of  its  entire  omission,  and 
the  giving  of  only  simple  nourishment,  and  moderate  doses  of 
strychnine  and  digitalis,  as  nerve  tonics.  My  advice  was  fol- 
lowed, though  not  without  much  hesitation  on  the  part  of  her 
friends.  The  result,  however,  was  entire  recovery  from  the 
mental  disorder,  and  some  improvement  in  her  general  health." 

Puerperal  mania  resulted  in  one  case  cited,  from 
the  use  of  a  moderate  amount  of  wine  at  mealtimes  ; 
when  the  wine  was  abandoned  the  mania  subsided. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

WHY   DOCTORS   STILL   PRESCRIBE  ALCOHOLICS. 

WORKERS  in  the  department  of  Non-Alcoholic 
Medication  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance 
Union  are  told  repeatedly  by  the  better  class  of 
physicians  that  they  would  be  glad  often  to  not 
prescribe  alcohol  if  patients  and  their  friends  would 
not  insist  upon  its  use.  There  is  a  deep-rooted 
prejudice  in  favor  of  alcohol  as  a  remedy  in  the 
minds  of  the  great  multitude  of  people,  and  they 
are  ready  to  distrust  as  fanatical,  or  incompetent, 
any  physician  who  does  not  use  it.  Dr.  Norman 
Kerr,  a  well-known  physician  of  England,  says,  that 
during  a  ten  years'  residence  in  America,  he  found 
people  unwilling  to  pay  him  as  much  for  his  serv- 
ices as  they  were  willing  to  pay  one  who  prescribed 
alcoholics. .  Even  those  who  were  abstainers  from 
liquors  as  beverages  distrusted  him  for  not  using 
these  things  as  medicines.  Indeed,  this  prejudice 
goes  so  far  with  many  that  they  will  refuse  to 
employ  a  non-alcoholic  physician,  if  they  know  him 
to  be  such.  In  consequence  of  this  latter  fact, 
there  are  great  numbers  of  skilful  physicians  who 
say    nothing    about     alcohol    lest    they     be    con- 

291 


292  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

sidered  "  faddists,"  and  lose  practice,  but  who 
never  prescribe  it  unless  it  is  asked  for  by  the 
patient  or  his  friends. 

Again,  consulting  physicians  will  sometimes  insist 
upon  the  use  of  alcohol,  and  thus  seeds  of  distrust 
of  the  non-alcoholic  physician  will  be  sown. 

Dr.  J.  J.  Ridge  says  of  medical  prescriptions : — 

"  Hundreds  of  medical  men  order  alcoholic  liquors  from 
habit,  from  ignorance  of  their  real  effect,  from  fashion,  or 
from  a  desire  to  please,  or  not  to  offend,  their  patients.  Port- 
wine  is  constantly  being  ordered  when  persons  are  recovering 
from  various  diseases  ;  day  by  day  they  regain  their  strength, 
and  the  port-wine  gets  all  the  credit  of  it,  especially  since 
each  glass  seems  to  diffuse  a  comfortable  glow  over  the  whole 
body.  They  forget  that  the  process  of  recovery  would  have 
gone  on  without  the  port,  and  that  hundreds  and  thousands  of 
people  do  get  well  without  it.  They  often  ignore  the  fact  that 
they  are  taking  real  tonics  in  addition.  They  are  misled  by 
the  sensations  which  the  alcohol  causes  ;  they  do  not  know 
that  it  relaxes  the  blood-vessels  instead  of  improving  their  tone; 
that  it  exhausts  the  heart  by  making  it  beat  away  more  rapidly 
to  no  profit.  Hence  the  convalescence  is  actually  more 
prolonged  than  it  would  otherwise  be.  Gentle  exercise,  regu- 
lated baths,  good  food,  balmy  sleep,  these  are  the  true  restor- 
atives of  the  exhausted  system,  and  no  jugglery  with  sedatives, 
such  as  alcohol,  can  produce  the  desired  result. 

"  It  is  by  its  sedative  action  that  alcohol  has  obtained  its  posi- 
tion in  public  opinion.  It  will  render  persons  insensible  to 
various  uneasy  sensations,  and  the  majority  prefer  to  continue 
the  bad  habits  which  produce  the  uneasy  sensations,  and  then 
to  take  them  away  by  a  dose  or  two  of  some  alcoholic  liquor, 
or,  indeed,  to  take  this  before  the  uneasy  sensations  come  on. 
In  this  way  they  do  themselves  injury  and  make  themselves 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  293 

unconscious  of  it.  Dr.  Beaumont,  who  had  the  opportunity  of 
examining  the  interior  of  Alexis  St.  Martin's  stomach,  and  of 
seeing  how  digestion  Went  on,  was  astonished  to  see  how 
inflamed  the  mucous  membrane  could  be  without  any  con- 
sciousness of  it.  He  observed,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  that  alco- 
holic drinks  of  all  kinds  hindered  the  process  of  digestion,  and 
produced  this  morbid  condition  of  the  mucous  membrane. 
The  relief,  therefore,  which  can  be  obtained  by  alcohol  is 
delusive  and  dangerous. 

"  But  some  persons  say  they  are  afraid  to  abandon  the  use  of 
alcohol  because  they  have  been  in  the  habit  of  taking  it  for  a 
long  period.  This  fear  is  entirely  groundless.  The  alcohol' 
will  be  missed  for  a  time,  just  as  a  person  who  has  been  using 
crutches  would  miss  them  if  thrown  away  ;  but  they  will  do 
better  without  both  after  a  little  while.  There  is  no  kind  of 
constitution  which  renders  a  person  unable  to  do  without  alco- 
hol. The  prisoners  in  all  our  jails  have  to  leave  off  their  drink 
at  once,  and  altogether,  on  entering  there,  and  no  harm  ever 
ensues  in  consequence.  But  some  say  that  this  is  because  their 
diet  is  so  carefully  arranged,  and  the  hygienic  condition  of  the 
prison  so  perfect.  Quite  so.  This  shows  us  clearly  that  when 
total  abstainers  become  ill  outside  the  prison,  their  illness  is  to 
be  attributed  to  some  error  in  diet  or  hygiene,  or  to  some 
accidental  circumstance.  It  is  absurd  to  think  that  the  infrac- 
tion of  one  law  of  health  can  be  nullified  by  breaking  another ; 
that  if  you  eat  too  much,  or  too  fast,  or  too  often,  or  what  is 
not  good  for  you,  you  can  escape  the  consequences  by  injur- 
ing yourself  with  alcohol." 

Dr.  N.  S.  Davis  was  for  many  years  openly 
sneered  at  by  many  of  his  professional  brethren  as 
"a  cold-water  fanatic."  Since  his  views  are  now 
being  rapidly  adopted  by  progressive  medical  men 
all  over  the  civilized  world,  he  says  that  soon  those 


294  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

physicians  who  cling  to  alcohol  will  deserve  the 
soubriquet  of  "  alcohol  fanatics."     He  adds  :  — 

"  If  I  am  asked  why  the  profession  continues  to  prescribe 
these  drinks,  I  answer  ;  simply  from  the  force  of  habit  and  tradi- 
tional education,  coupled  with  a  reluctance  to  risk  the  experi- 
ment of  omitting  them  while  the  general  popular  notions 
sanction  their  use.  Nothing  is  easier  than  self-deception  in 
this  matter.  A  patient  is  suddenly  taken  with  syncope,  or 
nervous  weakness,  from  which  abundant  experience  has  shown 
that  a  speedy  recovery  would  take  place  by  simple  rest  and 
fresh  air.  But  in  the  alarm  of  friends  something  must  be  done. 
A  little  wine  or  brandy  is  given,  and  as  it  is  not  sufficient  to 
positively  prevent,  the  patient  in  due  time  revives  just  as  would 
have  been  the  case  if  neither  wine  nor  brandy  had  been  used. 

"  Of  course  both  doctor  and  friends  will  regard  the  so-called 
stimulant  as  the  cause  of  the  recovery.  So,  too,  wThen  patients 
are  getting  weak,  in  the  advanced  stage  of  fever,  or  some  other 
self-limited  disease,  an  abundance  of  nourishment  is  regularly 
administered,  in  the  greater  part  of  which  is  mixed  some  kind 
of  alcoholic  drink.  The  latter  will  always  occupy  the  chief  at- 
tention, and  if,  after  a  severe  run,  the  fever,  or  disease,  finally 
disappears,  it  will  be  said  that  the  patient  was  sustained   or 

*  kept  alive  '  for  over  two  or  three  weeks,  as  the  case  may  be, 

•  solely  by  the  stimulants,'  when,  in  fact,  if  the  same  nourish- 
ment and  care  had  been  given  without  a  drop  of  alcohol,  he 
would  have  convalesced  sooner,  and  more  perfectly,  as  I  have 
seen  demonstrated  a  thousand  times  in  my  experience." 

Dr.  Casgrau,  of  Dublin,  says  that  physicians  who 
make  personal  use  of  alcohol  are  not  able  to  give 
an  unbiased  opinion  about  its  action,  as  one  of  its 
most  marked  effects  is  that  of  a  narcotic  to  the  men- 
tal powers ;  such  physicians  are  not  so  acute  to  ob- 
serve the  action  of  this,  or  any  drug. 


ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE.  295 

Sir  B.  W.  Richardson,  M.  D.,  in  an  address  upon 
the  reasons  why  physicians  still  prescribe  alcoholics, 
says  that  the  magnetism  of  public  opinion  has 
great  weight  with  professional  men. 

"  All  professions  are  under  that  subtle  influence.  All  pro- 
fessions whatever  their  duties,  whatever  their  learning  may  be, 
are  sensitive  and  obedient  to  that  influence.  In  their  pride 
they  think  they  lead  public  opinion  ;  it  is  a  mistake,  they  always 
follow  it  on  every  question  in  which  the  people,  at  large,  have  a 
voice.  They  can  assist  in  influencing  the  public  voice,  and 
sometimes,  to  quote  the  words  of  Abbe  Purcelle,  spoken  in  the 
dawn  of  the  great  French  Revolution,  they  may  prove  that 
'  respect  for  sovereign  power  sometimes  consists  in  transgress- 
ing its  orders,'  but  as  a  general  rule  not  merely  the  orders  but 
the  inclinations  are  obeyed.  We  have  to  wait  on,  and  for,  pub- 
lic opinion,  and  in  nothing  so  much  as  on  the  subject  of  alco- 
hol. The  use  of  alcoholic  beverages  rests  not  on  argument  but 
on  habit,  custom.  To  those  whom  it  affects  personally  it  is  an 
absolute  monarch.  It  makes  its  own  empire.  By  the  very 
action  which  it  has  upon  the  body  of  those  who  receive  it  into 
themselves  it  rules  and  governs.  The  joke  of  the  inebriate 
man  that  when  he  had  taken  his  potation  he  was  quite  another 
man  and  that  then  he  felt  it  his  duty  to  treat  that  other  man, 
is  literally  true,  a  terse  and  faithful  expression  of  a  natural  fact. 
The  man  or  woman  born  and  bred  under  the  influence  of  alco- 
hol is  of  the  race  of  alcohol,  and  as  distinct  a  person  as  any 
racial  peculiarity  can  supply.  The  reason,  the  judgment,  the 
temper,  the  senses  are  attuned  by  it.  It  is  loved  by  its  lovers 
like  life.  The  grape  to  them  is  no  longer  a  luscious  fruit ;  it  is 
'  the  mother  of  mighty  wine,'  and  he  who  is  bold  enough  to  dis- 
own that  motherhood  must  stand  apart.  How  can  a  profession 
however  strong,  march  all  at  once  against  such  an  overwhelm- 
ing influence  ?  Itself  born,  perchance,  under  the  influence 
bred  under  it,  how  shall  it  immediately  be  transformed  ?     Why 


296  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

disobey  the  influence  ?  It  is  in  the  interest  of  the  doctor  to 
obey,  in  a  worldly  sense  of  view  ;  but  more — it  is  in  his  nature 
to  obey.  The  strong  bands  of  nature  and  interest  go  hand  in 
hand.  Is  it  wonderful  that  the  genius  of  a  professional  man 
so  situated  should,  according  to  the  quality  of  his  genius,  up- 
hold, root  and  branch,  the  role  of  his  nativity  ?  On  the  con- 
trary the  wonder  is  that  he  has  ever  done  anything  else.  It  is 
most  natural  that  he  should  be  amongst  the  last  to  take  up 
what  revolutionizes  all  the  manners,  and  customs,  and  faiths,  of 
society.  A  lady  will  ask  her  physician  the  question,  May  I 
take  wine,  Sir  ?  As  much  as  you  like  Madam  ;  it  is  very  bad 
for  you  and  I  take  none,  but  that  is  your  business  entirely. 
Henceforth  that  gentleman  is  said  to  be  one  who  prescribes  al- 
cohol in  any  quantity.  In  fact,  he  never  prescribes  it,  for  al- 
though when  forbidding  is  hopeless,  there  is  all  the  difference 
in  the  world  between  prescribing  and  permitting,  permitting 
goes  down  as  if  it  were  prescribing.  Often  a  patient  will  try 
to  compromise.  On  an  ocean  of  whisky  and  water,  brandy  and 
soda,  or  other  poisonous  mixture,  he  is  floating  into  fatal  paraly- 
sis. You  tell  him  so  faithfully,  and  he  says  he  knows  it  and 
will  drop  down  to  claret.  If  you  assent,  he  tells  his  friends  you 
have  changed  his  brandy  or  whisky  to  wine  ;  if  you  dissent,  he 
says  you  have  left  your  duty  as  a  doctor  undone,  in  order  to  be- 
come an  advocate  for  abstaining  temperance,  about  which  he  is 
as  competent  a  judge  as  you  are,  and  he  won't  pay  fees  for  that 
advice.  He  pays  to  be  cured  of  his  disease,  not  to  be  dragooned 
into  a  system  peculiar  in  its  tenets.  In  an  alcoholic  world 
there  is  a  strong  argument  in  this  decision.  It  rolls  splendidly, 
especially  down  hill." 

After  speaking  of  non-alcoholic  physicians,  and 
their  opinions  of  the  harmfulness  of  alcohol,  he 
adds : — 

"  On  the  other  side,  there  are  practitioners  who,  under  the 
magnetism  of  public  opinion,  as  earnestly  believe  the  opposite 
in  relation  to  alcohol,  who  declare  they  could  not,  conscienti- 


ALCOHOL  AS   A  MEDICINE.  297 

ously,  practice  their  profession  if  they  were  debarred  the  use  of 
alcohol,  and  who  look  on  the  advance  and  the  growth  of  scien- 
tific abstaining  principles — which  they  cannot  avoid  recognizing 
— with  positive  dread.  The  extremists  on  this  side  are  indeed 
extreme  in  their  fanaticism.  They  shut  their  eyes  to  the  most 
obvious  facts,  and  do  not  hesitate  in  their  blindness  to  misrepre- 
sent the  most  obvious  truths.  They  affirm  that  under  the  in- 
fluence of  total  abstinence  and,  by  inference,  because  of  total 
abstinence,  the  yearly  decreasing  death-rate  of  the  population 
is  accompanied  by  reduction  of  vitality  ;  that  people  who  live 
long  are  more  enfeebled  than  those  who  live  short  lives  and 
merry  ;  that  under  abstinence  from  alcohol  fearful  diseases  are 
being  developed  ;  that  the  total  abstainers  have  less  power  for 
resisting  disease  than  the  moderate  temperate ;  and  that  under 
the  current  system  of  advance  towards  total  abstinence,  a  very 
small  advance  yet  by  the  way,  diseases  of  a  low  type  have  de- 
veloped and  extended  their  ravages." 

It  is  only  physicians  of  large  conscientiousness, 
or  of  great  independence  of  character,  who  will  dare 
to  go  counter  to  the  prejudices  of  the  people. 

Consequently,  it  is  necessary  to  educate  the  peo- 
ple in  the  teachings  of  those  physicians,  whose  em- 
inence in  the  profession  has  permitted  them,  or 
whose  conscientiousness  has  driven  them,  to  expose 
the  delusions  concerning  the  medical  value  of  alco- 
holic beverages.  When  the  people  cease  to  believe 
in  alcoholic  remedies,  physicians  will  no  longer  pre- 
scribe them.  But  while  the  majority  desire  the 
"  physicians'  prescription  "  as  a  cover  for  indulgence, 
there  will  be  found  physicians  willing  to  give  such 
prescriptions. 

That  the  prescription  of  alcohol  by  physicians  is 


298  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

largely  a  matter  of  routine  may  be  seen  from  the 
following  two  cases,  reported  to  the  writer  by 
county  superintendents  of  the  department  of  Non- 
Alcoholic  Medication. 

In  the  first  case,  the  physician  said  to  the  nurse, 
"  If  the  patient's  heart  becomes  weak,  you  might 
give  a  little  brandy  or  whisky."  Seeing  reluctance 
expressed  upon  the  nurse's  countenance,  he  added 
hastily,  "  Or  coffee,  strong  coffee  will  do  just  as 
well."  The  nurse  in  reporting  this  to  the  writer, 
said,  "  Why  couldn't  he  have  ordered  coffee  in  the 
first  place  if  he  thought  it  equally  good  ?  " 

The  second  case  was  that  of  an  aged  woman 
whose  physician  ordered  whisky  as  a  tonic.  Her 
granddaughter  ventured  to  ask,  "Would  not  whisky 
have  a  narcotic  rather  than  a  tonic  effect?"  He 
replied  thoughtfully,  "  Well,  tell  the  truth,  I  sup- 
pose it  would." 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

ALCOHOLIC   PROPRIETARY   OR   "  PATENT  "    MEDI- 
CINES. 

It  has  been  said  that  America  is  the  paradise  of 
quacks.  The  statement  is  true  for  various  reasons. 
One  is,  the  widespread  credulity  which  accepts  as 
truth  the  startling  claims  to  miraculous  cures,  of 
various  pills  and  potions,  as  set  forth  under  glaring 
headlines,  in  the  daily  newspapers.  Another  is,  the 
absence  of  laws,  in  most  of  the  states,  compelling 
manufacturers  of  medicines  to  place  upon  the  labels 
the  formulae  of  their  preparations,  or  to  use  names 
properly  designating  the  ingredients.  A  third  is, 
the  absence  of  laws  against  setting  forth  false  claims 
in  advertisements.  A  fourth  is,  the  amazing  volume 
of  the  traffic. 

Dr.  A.  Emil  Hiss,  Ph.  G.,  of  Chicago,  an  author- 
ity upon  these  preparations,  says  on  this  last 
point : — 

"  At  the  time  of  the  repeal,  in  1883,  of  the  stamp  taxes  on 
proprietary  medicines,  the  national  internal  revenue  receipts 
from  this  source  aggregated  $2,000,000  annually,  of  which  sum 
probably  not  less  than  $1,000,000  was  from  patent  medicines. 
This  would  represent  a  retail  value,  at  one  cent  tax  for  each 

299 


300  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

twenty-five  cents  value,  of  $40,000,000  in  annual  sales.  The 
present  annual  sales,  if  proportioned,  as  may  safely  be  assumed, 
to  the  larger  present  population,  would  now  reach  the  enormous 
sum  of  $60,000,000  annually.  This  enormous  drain  upon  the 
substance  of  the  people,  attended  with  the  infliction  of  injury 
incalculable,  presents  an  economic  problem  vital  to  the  peo- 
ple in  general." 

In  view  of  these  figures  it  is  small  wonder  that 
speculation  in  patent  medicine  ventures  has  changed 
poor,  itinerant  nostrum  venders  into  powerful  mil- 
lionaires in  the  course  of  a  few  years. 

A  careful  compilation  of  manufacturers'  announce- 
ments list  1,806  so-called  patent  medicines  sold  in 
open  markets,  in  which  alcohol,  opium  or  other 
toxic  drugs  form  constituent  parts.  675  of  the 
preparations  are  known  as  "bitters,"  stomachics,  or 
cordials,  and  alcohol  enters  into  their  composition  in 
quantities  varying  from  fifteen  to  fifty  per  cent. ; 
390  are  recommended  for  coughs  and  colds,  nearly 
all  of  which  contain  opium.  Sixty  remedies  are  sold 
for  the  relief  of  pain,  and  no  other  purpose.  120  are 
for  nervous  troubles,  and  of  this  number,  sixty-five 
have  entering  into  their  composition  coca  leaves,  or 
kola  nut,  or  both,  or  are  represented  by  their  respec- 
tive active  principles,  cocaine  or  caffeine.  129  are 
offered  for  headaches,  and  kindred  ailments,  and 
usually  with  a  guarantee  to  give  immediate  relief. 
In  these  are  generally  compounded  phenacetine, 
caffeine,  antipyrine,  acetanilid,  or  morphine,  diluted 
with  soda,  or  sugar  of  milk.  Dysentery,  diarrhoea, 
cholera   morbus,    cramp    in  bowels,  etc.,    have    185 


ALCOHOL   AS   A   MEDICINE.  301 

quick  reliefs  or  "  cures  M  to  their  credit,  nearly  all  of 
which  contain  opium,  many  of  them  in  addition, 
alcohol,  ginger,  capsicum#  or  myrrh  in  various  com- 
binations, and  there  are  numerous  cases  on  record 
where  children  and  adults  have  been  narcotized  by 
their  excessive  use.  Some  manufacturers  print  on 
the  labels  covering  these  goods,  words  of  caution 
limiting  the  amount  to  betaken.  Forty-eight  com- 
pounds for  asthma  contain  caffeine  and  morphine. 
Sufferers  from  toothache  have  their  choice  from 
thirty-eight  remedies,  and  thirty-six  soothing,  or 
teething,  syrups  are  provided  for  infants. 

There  are  many  people  ignorantly  and  innocently 
forming  an  alcohol,  opium  or  cocaine  habit  through 
the  use  of  patent  medicines.  As  superintendent  of 
the  department  of  Non-Alcoholic  Medication  for 
the  National  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union, 
the  writer  has  abundant  opportunity  to  learn  of  the 
evils  resulting  from  these  much  lauded  remedies. 
Women  from  many  sections  of  the  country  tell  of 
friends  and  acquaintances  who  have  been  ensnared 
in  time  of  physical  weakness  by  what  promised  a 
cure,  but  proved  a  ruin.  Many  reformed  inebriates 
have  lapsed  into  drunkenness  again  through  these 
insidious  agencies  of  evil.  The  increase  of  drunken- 
ness among  women  is  largely  due  to  disguised  alco- 
holic medicines,  a  considerable  number  of  com- 
pounds being  advertised  especially  for  their  pecu- 
liar ills ;  one  of  these,  having  immense  sale,  has 
been  analyzed  repeatedly  showing  from  18  to  20  per 
cent,  of  alcohol. 


302  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

It  may  be  asked,  "  How  is  it  if  these  mixtures  are 
harmful  only,  that  so  many  people  profess  to  have 
received  benefit  from  them  ?  There  are  different 
reasons  for  this. 

1.  The  nature  of  such  drugs  as  alcohol,  opium  and 
cocaine  is  to  benumb  sensation,  so  that  pain  is 
stilled,  and  the  pain,  or  functional  disturbance  for- 
gotten for  the  time,  because  the  nerves  are  drugged 
into  insensibility.  The  person  feels  better  while 
under  the  influence  of  the  drug,  so  thinks  it  is  bene- 
fiting him. 

2.  There  are  people  who  imagine  they  have  dis- 
eases which  they  do  not  have ;  since  trained  physi- 
cians occasionally  err  in  diagnosis,  it  is  not  strange 
if  the  laity  should  do  likewise.  Such  persons  are 
always  ready  to  aver  that  a  certain  medicine  "  cured  " 
them. 

A  ludicrous  example  of  this  is  a  woman  out  West, 
whose  picture  graces  the  advertisements  of  a  certain 
nostrum,  accompanied  by  a  testimonial  that  said 
nostrum  cured  her  of  a  "  polypus  "  !  Upon  being 
written  to  as  to  how  such  a  preparation  could  effect 
such  a  cure,  she  answered  that,  after  giving  the  testi- 
monial, she  found  that  she  had  not  had  a  polypus  ! 

3.  Some  of  the  cures  attributed  to  drugs,  are 
doubtless  due  to  Nature.  It  is  estimated  that  from 
30  to  90  per  cent,  of  ailments  are  cured  by  Nature, 
unassisted,  and  often  in  spite  of,  the  drugs  swallowed. 
Many  of  the  books  advertising  these  remedies  (?) 
give  excellent    rules  of   health,  which,    if   followed, 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  303 

would  restore  persons  to  vigor  more  speedily  with- 
out the  accompanying  medicine,  than  they  can  be 
restored  while  the  system  has  the  poisonous  drugs 
to  throw  off.  It  may  be  reasonably  assumed  that  a 
goodly  number  of  recoveries  ascribed  to  drug  treat- 
ments are  due,  in  reality,  to  the  resisting  force  of  a 
good  constitution,  or  to  obedience  to  the  laws  of 
health  given  in  the  circular. 

4.  It  is  not  uncommon  for  people  suffering  from 
certain  diseases  to  have  temporary  remissions  in  the 
course  of  the  disease.  No  doubt,  some  of  the  cases 
reported  as  cures  are  such  spontaneous  remissions, 
which  are  followed,  after  the  testimonials  have  been 
written,  by  relapse.  The  majority  of  people  are 
ignorant  of  the  natural  course  of  diseases — of  what 
happens  when  no  treatment  is  taken.  They  do  not 
know  that  a  great  many  affections  are  characterized 
by  periods  of  apparent  recovery.  For  instance  in 
some  varieties  of  paralysis,  as  well  as  in  consumption, 
the  sufferer  may  to  appearance  recover  completely 
for  a  few  months  or  longer  ;  if  a  remedy  was  being 
used  at  the  time,  it  would  naturally  get  the  credit 
of  causing  the  favorable  change. 

However,  all  of  the  glowing  testimonials  of  won- 
derful benefits  accruing  from  patent  medicines  are 
not  what  they  seem  to  be.  Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg  says 
in  his  Monitor  of  Health  : — 

"  The  average  manufacturer  of  patent  medicines  regularly 
employs  a  person  of  some  literary  attainment  whose  duty  it  is 
to  invent  vigorous  testimonials   of  sufferings   relieved   by  Dr. 


304  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

Charlatan's  universal  panacea.  In  many  instances  persons  are 
hired  to  give  testimonials,  and  answer  letters  of  inquiry  in  such 
a  way  as  to  encourage  business.  The  shameless  dishonesty 
and  ingenious  villainy. exhibited  are  beyond  description." 

Recently  an  advertisement  of  one  of  these  nos- 
trums stated  in  the  headlines  that  said  nostrum 
was  used  in  the  Frances  Willard  Temperance  Hospi- 
tal, Chicago.  The  testimonial  appended  purported 
to  be  from  a  nurse  in  that  hospital,  but  the  testimon- 
ial did  not  state,  as  did  the  headlines,  that  the  pre- 
paration was  ever  used  in  that  hospital.  The  presi- 
dent of  the  hospital  board  of  trustees  states  that  trie 
nurse  positively  denies  having  given  any  testimonial 
to  the  company  thus  advertising.  She  did  give  one 
to  another  patent  medicine  concern,  but  not  to  this, 
and  never  said  either  was  used  in  the  hospital,  nor 
have  they  been.  Suit  could  be  brought  for  dama- 
ges, but  unfortunately  the  patent  medicine  people 
have  unlimited  money,  and  the  hospital  has  not. 

Early  in  the  present  year  there  appeared  in  many 
daily  papers  a  large  advertising  picture  of  a  man 
whose  name  was  appended  as  a  professional  nurse  of 
a  western  city. 

The  following  testimonial  accompanied  .the  pic- 
ture : — 

"  Mr. of ,  who  is  a  professional  nurse  of  experi- 
ence, writes, — '  My  friend  is  improving,  thanks  to ,  and 

you.     I  am  called  on  to  nurse  the  sick  of  all  classes.     I  recom- 
mend   to  such   an  extent  that  I  am  nicknamed : 

(giving  name  of  nostrum)  by  nearly  everybody. ' " 

As  the  writer  of  this  book  was  acquainted  with  a 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  305 

physician  residing  in  the  small  city  mentioned  in 
the  advertisement,  she  wrote  to  him,  requesting  that 
he  investigate  this  testimonial. 

He  replied  that  he  found  the  chief  part  of  the 
advertisement,  namely,  that  Mr. was  a  pro- 
fessional nurse,  false  ;  "  First,  by  his  own  statement 
as  he  told  me  this  morning  that  he  never  claimed 
to  be  a  professional  nurse.  And  my  personal  ac- 
quaintance with  him,  as  well  as  that  of  a  number  of 
other  physicians  in  our  little  city,  and  reliable  men 
and  women  of  this  community  who  are  acquainted 
with  him,  all  testify  to  the  same  thing,  namely  ; 
that  he  is  not  a  professional  nurse,  neither  is  he  a 
nurse,  or  even  a  reliable  man.  He  is  an  innocent, 
ignorant  man,  very  close  to  the  pauper  class.  He 
told  me  when  I  read  the  commendation  to  which 
his  name  is  affixed,  that  it  was  all  true  except  the 
professional  nurse  part,  and  that  was  entirely  false, 
as  stated  above." 

As  the  picture  was  of  a  fine-looking,  intelligent- 
appearing  man  it  probably  was  as  genuine  as  the 
testimonial. 

The  following  was  clipped  from  a  copy  of  Merck's 
Report,  April,  1899,  a  druggists'  paper  published  in 
New  York  city  : — 

Many  Druggists  Indignant. 

a   patent-medicine  advertisement   contains  unau- 

.     thorized  endorsements. 

"  Fully  a  score  of  East-side  druggists  are  up  in  arms  over  the 
unauthorized  use  of  their  names  in  a  full-page  newspaper  adver- 


306  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

tisement  of  a  widely-known  specific.  This  advertisement  ap- 
peared recently  in  certain  New  York  daily  papers,  and  retail 
druggists  who  have  made  it  a  rule  of  their  business  never  to 
recommend  any  particular  proprietary  article,  found  themselves 
quoted  in  unqualified  laudation  of  the  article  so  liberally  adver- 
tised. The  names  and  addresses  of  the  druggists  were  given 
in  full,  and  when  several  of  the  men  quoted  conferred  together 
they  found  that  the  most  barefaced  misrepresentation  had  been 
resorted  to. 

"  One  of  the  pharmacists  thus  misrepresented,  happened  to  be 
Sidney  Faber,  the  secretary  of  the  Board  of  Pharmacy.  He 
was  not  selling  this  particular  specific,  and  had  never  said  a 
word  for  or  against  it,  nevertheless,  six  or  eight  lines  of  en- 
dorsement of  the  article  were  directly  attributed  to  him.  He 
called  on  some  of  his  druggist  neighbors  whose  names  he  saw 
in  the  advertisement,  and  ascertained  that  they,  too,  had  been 
falsely  and  unwarrantably  quoted.  Mr.  Faber  promptly  wrote 
to  the  proprietors  of  the  specific  in  question,  and  denounced  the 
published  endorsements  bearing  his  name,  as  a  forgery.  His 
indignation  was  by  no  means  appeased  when  he  received  a 
letter  from  the  proprietary  concern,  couched  in  the  following 
language  :  '  We  regret  to  learn  that  you  have  been  annoyed  by 
any  statements  that  have  appeared  in  New  York  city  papers. 
We  will  forward  your  letter  to  them.' 

"  Within  the  past  few  days  several  of  the  druggists  whose 
names  were  used  in  this  advertisement  without  authority,  have 
been  considering  the  advisability  of  taking  legal  proceedings  in 
order  to  ascertain  their  rights  in  the  matter.  It  is  contrary  to 
pharmaceutical  ethics  for  a  pharmacist  to  specially  endorse  any 
proprietary  article,  or  patent  medicine.  Some  of  the  offended 
druggists  propose  to  contribute  to  a  fund  for  the  purpose  of 
publicly,  and  widely,  advertising  this  unwarranted  use  of  their 
names."     . 

When  patent  medicine  advertisers  would  dare  to 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  30/ 

resort  to  such  a  wholesale  fraud  as  this,  what  may 
they  be  expected  to  refrain  from  ? 

As  an  illustration  of  how,  commendations  from 
notable  persons  are  sometimes  obtained,  the  follow- 
ing is  cited  :  In  the  winter  of  1899,  appeared  an 
advertising  picture  of  the  lovely  Christian  lady 
from  Denmark,  the  Countess  Schimmelmann,  who 
was  spending  some  time  in  Chicago.  Below  her 
picture  were  the  words : — 

"  Adeline,  Countess  Schimmelmann,  whose  portrait  is  here 

given,   in   a   recent  letter  to   the company,  (mentioning 

proprietors  of  nostrum)  speaks  of  friends  of  hers  who  have 

been  benefited  by (mentioning  nostrum),  and  who  first 

advised  her  to  recommend  it  to  her  sick  friends. 

"  The  Countess,  as  is  well  known,  is  a  prominent  member  of 
the  Danish  court.  Her  coming  to  this  country  has  been  much 
talked  of.  Her  real  object  is  one  of  charity.  She  is  stopping 
in  Chicago,  and  from,  there  writes  her  straightforward  en- 
dorsement of (mentioning  nostrum)." 

The  italics  are  the  writer's.  The  picture  and  the 
testimonial  were  cut  from  the  paper,  and  sent  to 
the  countess,  asking  if  she  had  so  spoken  of  this 
medicine,  and,  if  so,  did  she,  a  strong  total  absti- 
nence woman,  know  that  this  mixture  contains  a 
large  percentage  of  alcohol. 

She  responded  as  follows  : — 

"  Thank  you  for  asking  me  about  the  enclosed.  A  white- 
ribbon  lady  came  and  asked  me  if  I  would  do  her  the  great 

kindness   to   recommend compound   (made  up  of  the 

juice  of  celery).     I  said  I  could  not  personally  recommend  it 
as  I  neither  use,  nor  want,  medicine.     But  some  very  reliable 


308  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

friends  of  mine  {temperance  people,  and  true  Christians)  told 
me  I  would  do  a  good  thing  in  recommending  it  as  they  used 
it,  and  found  it  excellent.     Then  I  wrote  the  following:     'I 

myself  cannot  recommend compound  as  I  do  not  suffer 

from  any  of  the  ailments  it  is  said  to  be  good  for,  but  reliable 
friends  of  mine  tell  me  that  it  is  excellent,  and  I  would  do  a 
good  thing  in  recommending  it  to  my  friends.  Adeline,  Count- 
ess Schimmelmann.' 

"  I  will  only  consent  to  the  publishing  of  this  letter  if  you 
publish  the  whole  letter,  and  no  extract  from  it,  as  the  white- 
ribbon  lady  did  for  the compound." 

If  a  white-ribboner  played  this  mean  trick  upon 
this  distinguished  Christian  worker  she  is  un- 
worthy of  membership  in  the  Woman's  Christian 
Temperance  Union.  It  is  more  than  likely  that 
the  "  white-ribbon  lady,"  was  a  paid  advertising 
agent  of  the  patent  medicine  manufacturer,  and 
wore  a  white-ribbon  to  gain  the  confidence  of  the 
Countess. 

Whether  patent  medicine  manufacturers  know 
how  to  doctor  all  ills  to  which  human  flesh  is  heir 
may  be  doubted,  but  that  their  advertising  agents 
are  skilful  "  doctors  "  of  testimonials  is  very  evident 
to  any  one  acquainted  with  the  facts. 

The  Department  of  Public  Charities  of  New 
York  city  in  a  "  Report  on  the  use  of  so-called 
Proprietary  Medicines  as  Therapeutic  Agents,'* 
says : — 

"  In  connection  with  this  subject  it  might  be  mentioned  that, 
for  years  past,  the  name  of  Bellevue  Hospital  has  been  taken 
in  vain  by  a  number  of  persons  and  firms,  without  any  authority 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  309 

whatever.  It  is  a  common  occurrence  that  samples  of  proprie- 
tary medicines,  foods,  mineral  waters,  plasters,  etc.,  etc.  are 
sent  to  the  hospital,  or  to  members  of  the  house-staff  for 
4  trial,'  whereupon  the  subsequent  advertisements  of  the 
articles  in  question  often  assert  that  the  latter  are  •  used  in 
Bellevue  Hospital,'  leaving  the  impression  upon  the  mind  of 
the  reader  that  the  article,  or  articles,  have  been  used  with 
the  sanction  of  some  member  of  the  Medical  Board.  It  is 
probably  impossible  to  find  a  remedy  for  this  evil,  from  which 
many  other  institutions  of  repute  likewise  suffer.  To  publish  a 
denial  of  such  false  assertions  would  only  aggravate  the  evil. 
The  utmost  that  can  be  done  appears  to  be,  to  caution  the 
medical  staff  against  any  entanglements  with,  or  encourage- 
ment of,  the  agents  of  the  interested  parties." 

This  report,  which  was  adopted  by  the  Medical 
Board  of  Bellevue  Hospital,  classifies  proprietary 
preparations  as  "  Objectionable  "  or  "  Unobjection- 
able "  according  to  the  following  rules : — 

"  Unobjectionable  preparations  are  those,  the  origin  and 
composition  of  which  is  not  kept  secret,  and  which  are  known 
to  serve  a  useful  and  legitimate  purpose.  Malted  Milk  is  an 
example.  Objectionable  proprietary  preparations,  by  far  the 
largest  group  of  the  whole  class,  comprise  all  those  which  are 
aimed  at  under  the  medical  code  of  ethics  under  the  term 
'  secret  nostrum,'  which  term  may  be  more  closely  defined  thus  : 

"  A  secret  nostrum  is  a  preparation,  the  origin  or  composi- 
tion of  which  is  kept  secret,  the  therapeutic  claims  for  which 
are  unreasonable  or  unscientific,  or  which  is  not  intended  for  a 
legitimate  purpose. 

"  Examples  :  The  various  '  Soothing  Syrups,'  '  Female 
Regulators,'  '  Blood  Purifiers,'  and  thousands  of  others." 

Dr.  A.  Emil  Hiss,  Ph.  G.,  says  of  the  secrecy  of 
these  preparations : — 


310  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

"  A  secret  compound  with  a  meaningless  title  is  presump- 
tively a  fraud.  Why  a  secret  if  not  to  permit  extravagant,  or 
fraudulent,  claims  as  to  therapeutic  merit  ?  *****  ^he 
ruling  motive  of  the  secret  being  essentially  false  and  dis- 
honest, its  employment  in  the  interest  of  any  remedy  is  clearly 
a  sufficient  cause  for  its  condemnation  and  ostracism." 

Mothers  sometimes  wonder  why  their  boys  take 
so  readily  to  cigarettes,  or  their  daughters  to  cocaine, 
never  thinking  that  the  soothing  syrup,  or  cough 
mixture  given  freely  by  themselves  to  their  children 
developed  a  craving  for  something  stronger  later 
on.  Mrs.  Winslow's  Soothing  Syrup,  advertised  for 
years  in  church  as  well  as  secular  papers  as  "  in- 
valuable for  children,"  is  cited  in  the  report  for 
1888  of  the  Massachusetts  State  Board  of  Health 
as  containing  opium;  also  Ayer's  Cherry  Pectoral, 
Dr.  Bull's  Cough  Syrup,  Jayne's  Expectorant, 
Hooker's  Cough  and  Croup  Syrup,  Moore's  Essence 
of  Life,  Mother  Bailey's  Quieting  Syrup,  and  others 
too  numerous  to  mention.     The  report  says  : — 

"  The  sale  of  soothing  syrups,  and  all  medicines  designed  for 

the  use  of  children,  which  contain  opium  and  its  preparations 

l  should  be  prohibited.     Many  would  be   deterred  from  using  a 

i  preparation  known  to  contain  opium,  who  would  use  without 

question  a  soothing  syrup  recommended  for  teething  children." 

Again,  on  page  149  the  following  is  quoted  from 
a  prominent  physician  : — 

""  Among  infants,  and  in  the  early  years  of  life,  soothing 
syrups  are  the  cause  of  untold  misery  ;  for  seeds  are  doubtlessly 
sown  in  infancy  only  to  bear  the.  most  pernicious  fruit  in  adult 
Jife.     It  is  said  that  one  of  the  best  known  soothing  syrups  con- 


ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE.  31I 

tains  from  one  to  three  grains  of  morphia  to  the  ounce  of 
syrup.  I  believe  that  stringent  legal  measures  should  immedi- 
ately be  taken  to  stop  the  sale  of  so-called  soothing  syrups 
containing  opium,  morphia  or  codeine." 

The  writer  has  known  mothers  so  ignorant  of  the 
nature  of  these  soothing  syrups  as  to  deliberately 
put  the  baby  to  sleep  upon  them  in  order  to  insure 
relief  from  care  for  some  hours. 

Prof.  J.  Redding,  M.  D.,  says  on  this  point : — 

"  While  it  may  be  true  that  an  adult,  of  his  own  free  will,  and 
without  incentive,  or  predisposing  causes,  does  occasionally  be- 
come a  drunkard,  I  am  convinced  that  nine  hundred  and 
ninety-nine  out  of  every  one  thousand  individuals  who  become 
drunkards  are  made  so  in  embryo,  infancy,  or  childhood,  by  the 
use  of  alcoholic  decoctions,  soothing  syrups,  opiates,  calomel, 
etc.  which  are  given  as  medicines  to  allay  pain,  obtUnd  nerve 
sensibility,  to  cure  the  little  sufferer  of  his  vital  manifestations, 
of  his  mental  discomforts,  but  leave  the  actual  disease  and  its, 
perhaps,  putrid  causation  to  time  and  debilitated  vitality  to 
remove." 

Of  the  danger  and  harmfulness  of  patent  cough 
mixtures  The  American  Therapist  says  : — 

"  Cough  mixtures  as  a  rule,  do  more  harm  than  good.  Nine 
times  out  of  ten  the  principal  ingredient  is  opium.  It  is  true 
that  opium  may  lessen  the  tendency  to  cough,  but  it  does  great 
damage  by  arresting  the  normal  secretions,  and  the  system 
becomes  affected  by  the  poisons  from  the  kidneys,  skin, 
stomach,  intestines  and  the  mucous  membrane  lining  the  up- 
per air  passages.  Not  only  do  these  mixtures  arrest  every 
secretion  in  the  body,  but  they  also  show  their  deteriorating 
and  degrading  effect  through  the  stomach.  They  contain  sub- 
stances which  tend  to  disorder  and  derange  digestion." 


312  ALCOHOL  AS  A    MEDICINE. 

Dr.  T.  D.  Crothers,  of  Hartford,  Conn.,  in  a  re- 
cent number  of  The  Journal  of  the  American  Medi- 
cal Association,  tells  of  cases  he  has  known  of 
persons  suffering  from  some  bronchial  irritation, 
who  were  addicted  to  a  cough  remedy  which  con- 
tained morphia.  They  suffered  from  the  use  of  it, 
but  with  great  difficulty  were  made  to  abstain  from 
it.  He  also  cites  the  case  of  a  clergyman  who  cer- 
tified to  a  cure  of  consumption  by  a  certain  cough 
drug,  but  he  could  not  keep  from  using  it  more 
than  a  day  or  two.  He  afterward  became  a  morphia 
inebriate. 

In  the  report  upon  Food  and  Drug  Inspection  of 
the  Massachusetts  State  Board  of  Health  for  1896 
is  a  list  of  fifty  proprietary  medicines,  showing  the 
percentage  of  alcohol  by  volume,  as  found  by  the 
analysts  employed  by  the  Board.  The  following 
percentages  are  taken  from  that  report. 

Per  Cent,  of 
Alcohol.         ' 

"  Best  Tonic," , y.6 

Hoofland's  German  Tonic, 29.3 

Howe's  Arabian  Tonic,  label  says  "  not  a  rum  drink,".. .  13.2 

Liebig's  Coca  Beef  Tonic 23.2 

Mensman's  Peptonized  Beef  Tonic, 16.5 

Parker's  Tonic,  labelled,  "  Purely  Vegetable,"  "  recom- 
mended for  inebriates," 41.6 

Schenck's  Sea  Weed  Tonic,  labelled,  "  entirely  harmless,"  19.5 

Atwood's  Quinine  Tonic  Bitters, 29.2 

Baker's  Stomach  Bitters, 42-6 

Burdock  Blood  Bitters, 25.2 

Copp's  White  Mountain  Bitters,  labelled  "  not  an  alcoholic 

beverage," 6.0 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  313 

Drake's  Plantation  Bitters, 33.2 

Hoofland's  German  Bitters,  "  entirely  vegetable,  and  free 

from  alcoholic  stimulant," 25.6 

Hostetter's  Stomach  Bitters, 44.3 

Kaufmann's  Sulphur  Bitters,  "  contains  no  alcohol," 25.6 

As  a  matter  of  fact  it  contains  no  sulphur, 

Paine's  Celery  Compound, 21.0 

Puritana, 22.0 

Richardson's  Concentrated  Sherry  Wine  Bitters, 47.5 

Warner's  Safe  Tonic  Bitters, 35.7 

Whiskol,  labelled  "  a  non-intoxicating  stimulant,  whisky 

without  its  sting," 28.2 

Colden's  Liquid  Beef  Tonic,  "recommended  for  treat- 
ment of  alcohol  habit," 26.5 

Ayers's  Sarsaparilla, 26.2 

Hood's  Sarsaparilla, 1 8.8 

Allen's  Sarsaparilla, 13.5 

Dana's  Sarsaparilla, 13.5 

Brown's  Sarsaparilla, 13.5 

Radvvay's  Resolvent, 7.9 

The  least  known  of  the  fifty  preparations  ex- 
amined, are  omitted.  The  dose  recommended  upon 
the  labels  of  these  medicines  (?)  varied  from  a 
teaspoonful  to  a  wineglassful,  and  the  frequency 
also  varied  from  one  to  four  times  a  day,  "  increased 
as  needed."  The  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Health 
making  these  examinations  says  there  is  no  doubt 
but  that  such  doses  may  beget  an  alcoholic  craving. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  the  percentage  of  alcohol 
in  many  of  these  preparations  is  much  greater  than 
in  ordinary  wine,  beer  or  cider.  Some  of  them 
are  said  to  have  immense  sale  in  prohibition  states 
as  beverages. 


3 14  ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE. 

Another  nostrum,  advertising  as  "  a  positive  cure 
for  the  opium  and  alcohol  habits,"  was  analyzed 
for  the  Boston  Journal  of  Health,  and  found  to 
contain  about  19  per  cent,  of  alcohol.  A  later  ex- 
amination by  Dr.  R.  G.  Eccles,  and  published  in 
the  Druggists  Circular,  drew  particular  attention 
to  the  fact  that  the  preparation  contained  cocaine. 
Yet  the  circular  accompanying  this  medicine  makes 
the  statement  that  though  tasting  like  a  wine 
thirty  years  old,  it  is  positively  free  from  alcohol  or 
narcotics,  and  that  it  "  creates  no  craving,  and  can 
be  left  off  at  any  moment  without  the  slightest 
desire  for  it." 

Why  the  manufacturers  of  such  a  preparation  are 
not  proceeded  against  for  obtaining  money  under 
false  pretenses  is  probably  because  "  what  is  every- 
body's business  is  nobody's  business." 

The  report  of  the  Board  of  Health  mentioned 
gives  also  a  list  of  twenty  so-called  "  opium  cures," 
all  of  which  were  found  to  contain  morphine  in 
variable  amounts.  The  examination  of  "  sarsa- 
parilla  "  remedies,  or  "  blood-purifiers,"  by  the  anal- 
ysts employed  by  this  Board  of  Health,  shows  that 
nearly  all  of  them  contain  a  considerable  percentage 
of  iodide  of  potassium,  in  addition  to  the  large 
quantities  of  alcohol.  Of  this  iodide  the  report 
says  : — 

"  The  sale  of  such  an  article  in  unlimited  quantities  by  drug- 
gists, grocers  and  others  is  censurable.  More  than  this,  the 
method  of  its  sale  is  dishonest,  since  the  unwary  purchaser  is 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  315 

led  to  believe  that  he  is  purchasing  a  harmless  vegetable  remedy, 
namely,  sarsaparilla.  It  may  be  seriously  questioned  whether 
the  blood  of  persons  who  take  iodide  of  potassium  continuously 
is  not  decidedly  impoverished,  instead  of  being  purified,  as  is 
claimed  by  the  manufacturers.  Unlike  sarsaparilla,  iodide  of 
potassium  is  classed  among  poisons  by  nearly  every  writer  on 
toxicology. 

"  The  pale,  sallow  complexion  of  the  habitual  user  of  the 
sarsaparilla  iodides  is  unfortunately  too  often  met  with  wher- 
ever these  remedies  are  freely  sold." 

Yet  these  sarsaparillas,  so  injurious,  and  so  dan- 
gerous because  of  the  alcohol  in  them,  are  adver- 
tised freely  in  many  religious,  and  some,  temperance 
papers.  These  papers  could  not  be  induced  at  any 
price  to  insert  advertisements  of  wine,  beer  or  cider, 
yet  from  lack  of  thought,  or  lack  of  knowledge, 
they  give  space  to  sarsaparillas,  opium  cures,  and 
other  drug  preparations  as  injurious  to  health  as 
most  of  the  alcoholic  beverages  commonly  sold. 

"  Instant  cold  relief  "  is  mentioned  in  the  report 
as  containing  cocaine,  with  sugar  of  milk,  menthol, 
and  common  salt.  The  danger  in  using  remedies 
containing  cocaine  consists  in  the  liability  to  the 
formation  of  a  cocaine  habit.  Instances  have  been 
cited  in  which  persons  purchasing  this  remedy  have 
used  a  half  dozen  bottles  per  day,  with  the  result  of 
producing  permanent  injury  to  health.  According 
to  the  "  United  States  Dispensatory,"  the  habitual 
use  of  cocaine  readily  grows  upon  the  individual, 
and  the  inveterate  user  can  be  recognized  by  his 
uncertain  step,  general   apathy,  sunken  eyes,  trem- 


3l6  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

bling  lips,  fetid  breath,  etc.  Incurable  insomnia  is 
apt  to  be  developed,  emaciation  becomes  extreme, 
dropsy  appears,  and  even  death  results.  Poisoning 
and  death  have  resulted  from  both  its  internal  ad- 
ministration, and  its  local  use. 

There  are  some  headache  cures  upon  the  market 
which  are  said  by  analysts  to  contain  cocaine. 
Others,  advertised  as  harmless,  consist  chiefly  of 
antipyrine,  a  very  powerful  substance  derived  from 
eoal  tar.  It  relieves  pain,  but  has  a  most  depressing 
effect  upon  the  heart,  and  is  a  dangerous  remedy, 
unfitted  for  self-prescription. 

Malt  extracts  are  very  extensively  used  at  the 
present  time,  under  the  popular  notion  that  they 
are  an  aid  to  starch  digestion.  That  they  are  a 
product  of  the  brewery  has  caused  them  to  be 
looked  upon  with  suspicion  by  cautious  people,  but 
the  multitude  has  apparently  given  no  thought,  or 
care,  as  to  whether  or  not  they  may  be  alcoholic. 
Dr.  Charles  Harrington  presented  the  results  of  an 
examination  of  these  preparations  at  a  meeting  of 
the  Boston  Society  of  Medical  Sciences,  held  Nov. 
17,  1896.  The  following  is  quoted  from  the  journal 
of  the  society  for  November,  1896  : — 

"  Twenty-one  different  brands  of  liquid  malt  extract  were 
obtained  and  analyzed.  That  they  were  not  true  malt  extracts 
is  shown  by  the  fact  that  in  no  one  was  there  the  slightest  di'as- 
tatic  power ;  all  were  alcoholic,  some  being  stronger  than  beer, 
ale,  or  even  porter.  In  a  number  of  specimens  a  large  amount 
of  salicylic  acid  was  detected." 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  317 

Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg,  in  commenting  upon  this  re- 
port, said  in  the  Dec.,  1896,  Bulletin  of  the  A.  M.  T. 
A.:— 

"  In  the  light  of  these  facts,  it  is  apparent  that  ale  or  lager 
beer  might  as  well  be  prescribed  for  a  patient  as  these  so-called 
malt  extracts,  which  are  practically  nothing  more  than  concen- 
trated ale  or  lager." 

There  are  malt  extracts,  made  up  like  honey,  or 
syrup,  in  consistency,  which  are  valuable. 

The  following  list  of  malt  extracts,  with  accom- 
panying letter  from  Prof.  Sharpies,  is  taken  from  a 
paper  published  by  Hon.  Henry  H.  Faxon,  of 
Quincy,  Mass.  : — 

"Boston,  Mass.,  March  20,  1897. 
"  I  enclose  a  list  of  the  malt  extracts  examined  in  this  office 
during  the  past  year  or  two.  These  samples  were  all  in 
original  packages,  obtained  by  officers  in  various  parts  of 
Eastern  Massachusetts.  They  probably  very  fairly  represent  the 
various  malt  extracts  on  the  market.  I  have  added  two 
samples  of  Porter  and  one  of  Old  Brown  Stout  for  purposes  of 
comparison. 

"  Yours  respectfully, 

"  S.  P.  Sharples. 
"  State  Assayer." 

Name.  Solids.  A  Icohol. 

5193  English  Malt  Extract 9.70  5.63 

5214  Old  Grist  Mill  Malt  Extract 10.57  5.54 

5418  Old  Grist  Mill  Malt  Extract 9.98  5.63 

5490  Old  Grist  Mill  Malt  Extract 1 2.28  5.86 

5626  Old  Grist  Mill  Malt  Extract 9.63  5.00 

5207  Liquid  Food,  a  Malt  Extract 10.47  4.27 

5225  Pure  Malt,  a  Liquid  Food,  a  Tonic 9.71  5.00 


318  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

5416  Pure  Malt,  a  Liquid  Food,  a  Tonic  10,76  6.32 

*56iq  King's  Pure  Malt 9.52  6.6a 

5421  A  Nutritious  Tonic,  Pure  Malt  Extract 10.88  6.24 

5226  Noris'  Extract  of  Malt 1 1.57  5.94 

5258  Noris'  Extract  of  Malt 9.31  6.55 

5397  Noris'  Extract  of  Malt 10.63  6.24. 

5485  Noris'  Extract  of  Malt 10.50  6.63 

5620  Noris' Extract  of  Malt 12.55  5-Q<> 

5229  Pabst  Malt  Extract,  The  Best  Tonic 10.43  5-l(> 

5230  Hoff  s  Malt  Extract  (Tarrant's) 11.33  8-8& 

5489  Hoff's  Malt  Extract  (Tarrant's) 12.25  7.17 

5231  Johann    Hoff'sches    Malz-Extract,  Gesund- 

heit's  Beir 11.31  4.34 

5491  Johann  Hoff'sches     Malz-Extract,  Gesund- 

heit's  Beir 11.02  4.85 

5621  Johann   Hoff'sches   Malz-Extract,    Gesund- 

heit's  Beir ,.  10.49  4- 5° 

5408  Johann   Hoff'sches    Malz-Extract,   Gesund- 

heit's  Beir 1 1.47  47& 

5340  Haffenreffer  &  Co.  Malt  Wine 1 1 .02  6.65 

5423  Haffenreffer  &  Co.  Malt  Wine 11.71  5.63 

Liquid  Bread,  A  Pure  Extract  of  Malt 6.78  6.63 

5395  Durgin's  Malt,  Liquid  Extract  of  Malt 7.12  5.94 

5433  Durgin's  Liquid  Extract  of  Malt 6.49  5.55 

5396  Wyeth's  Liquid  Malt  Extract 1480  3.35 

5488  Wyeth's  Liquid  Malt  Extract 1 5. 50  2.86 

5622  Wyeth's  Liquid  Malt  Extract 15.73  2-35 

5406  Wampole's  Concentrated  Extract  of  Malt. .  9.84  9.86 

5407  Anheuser-Busch 's  Malt  Nutrine. 15.98  3.00 

5600  Anheuser-Busch's  Malt  Nutrine 15.82  2.25 

5417  Malt  Extract  (Sterilized),  John  L.  Gleeson..  7.97  4.71 

5422  Malt  Extract  (Sterilized),  Charles  C.  Hearn.*  8.58  5.00 
5436  Burkhart  Brewing  Co.'s  Malt  Extract 10.73  7-01 

*  The  label  on  King's  Malt  states  that  for  a  strong,  healthy  person,  with  a 
good  appetite,  a  pint  with  each  meal  and  another  on  retiring  at  night  will  not 
be  too  much. 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  319 

5486  Menzel's  Extract  of  Malt 5-9°  5-24 

5625  Menzel's  Extract  of  Malt 6.75  4.35 

5623  King  of  Malt  Tonics,  Lion  Tonic 10.95  7.05 

5624  Teutonic,  "  A  concentrated  Extract  of  Malt 

and  Hops  " 9-95    745 

5409  Van  Nostrand's  Old  Stout  Porter,  "  a  pure 

malt  extract  " 7>97    6.55 

5233  Philadephia  Porter 5-34    6.63 

5232  Burke's  Guiness  Stout 6.66    7.17 

The  alcohol  in  the  above  table  represents  the  cubic  centimeters 
of  alcohol  in  a  100  cubic  centimeters  of  the  liquid.  The  solids 
are  the  number  of  grams  of  solid  extract  in  each  100  centi- 
meters of  the  liquid. 

S.  P.  Sharples. 

The  British  Medical  Journal,  and  the  British 
Medical  Temperance  Review  have  been  calling  atten- 
tion to  the  danger  in  coca  wines.  Intemperance 
among  invalids  is  said  to  be  greatly  on  the  increase 
from  the  use  of  these  wines.  In  every  case  the 
basis  of  these  preparations  is  strongly  alcoholic 
wine,  ranging  from  18  to  20  per  cent.  The  coca 
added  is  either  the  leaves,  or  liquid  extract  of  coca, 
or  hydrochlorate  of  cocaine. 

Dr.  Frederic  Coley  says  in  the  British  Medical 
Journal'. —  * 

"  Coca,  and  its  chief  alkaloid,  cocaine,  are  drugs  which  pos- 
sess some  power  of  removing  the  sense  of  fatigue,  just  as  anal- 
gesics remove  the  consciousness  of  pain.  But  they  no  more 
remove  the  physical  condition  of  muscles,  and  nerve  centres, 
of  which  the  sense  of  pain  gives  us  warning,  than  a  dose  of 
morphine,  which  removes  the  pain  of  toothache,  removes  the  of- 
fending tooth,  or  even  arrests  the  caries  in  it.  The  truth  of 
this  will  be  obvious  to  any  one  who  remembers  enough  of  physio- 


320  ALCOHOL   AS   A   MEDICINE. 

logy  to  know  what  fatigue  really  means.  A  muscle  which  is 
tired  out  is  different  chemically  from  the  same  muscle  in  its 
more  normal  condition,  when  it  is  ready  to  respond  vigorously 
to  ordinary  stimuli.  It  has  lost  something,  and  is,  besides,  over- 
charged (poisoned,  in  fact)  with  the  products  of  its  own  activity, 
and  it  can  only  be  restored  by  a  fresh  supply  of  the  material 
which  it  requires,  and  the  carrying  away  of  the  poisonous  waste 
products.  Fatigue  of  nerve  centres  is  no  doubt  strictly  analog- 
ous to  fatigue  of  muscles. 

"  It  is  practically  impossible  for  us,  by  voluntary  exertion,  to 
reach  the  degree  of  absolute  fatigue,  which  the  physiologist  pro- 
duces by  electric  stimulation  of  a  nerve-muscle  preparation. 
The  sense  of  fatigue  becomes  so  intense  that  voluntary  effort 
cannot  overcome  it.  So  no  man  can  produce  asphyxia  by 
simply  holding  his  breath,  because  the  besoi7i  de  respirer  be- 
comes irresistible  ;  but  it  is  quite  possible  for  a  narcotic  to  so 
dull  the  sensory  part  of  the  respiratory  reflex  mechanism  as  to 
permit  asphyxia  to  take  place. 

"  The  sense  of  fatigue,  and  the  besoin  de  respirer  are  both 
Nature's  danger  signals.  Drugs  which  hide  such  signals  from 
us  are  a  more  than  doubtful  benefit.  If  it  were  possible  for  us 
to  suppose  that  a  fraction  of  a  grain  of  cocaine  could  afford  to 
exhausted  nerve  centres,  and  muscles,  the  nutriment  which  they 
require  for  their  restoration,  and  at  the  same  time  eliminate  the 
poisonous  waste  products,  then  it  would  be  reasonable  to  pre- 
scribe the  drug  for  use  by  all  who  are  overworked,  and  perhaps 
suffering  from  the  malnutrition  consequent  upon,  '  nervous 
dyspepsia,'  as  well  as  mere  want  of  rest. 

"  In  this  go-ahead  century  it  is  no  wonder  that  many  are  but 
too  ready  to  experiment  with  a  drug  which  professes  to  be  able 
to  remove  fatigue,  and  to  enable  a  man  to  go  on  working  when, 
without  its  aid,  weariness  had  become  unendurable.  Cocaine 
claims  all  this  ;  and  it  is  most  dangerous  just  because,  for  a 
time,  it  seems  able  to  keep  its  promise.  That  is  how  victims  to 
cocainism  are  made.     Let  us  be  honest  with   our  overworked 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  321 

patients,  who  want  us  to  help  them  with  drugs  ;  let  us  tell  them 
that  rest  is  the  only  safe  remedy  for  weariness. 

"  To  combine  such  a  drug  as  coca,  or  cocaine,  with  an  al- 
coholic stimulant,  is  to  multiply  the  dangers  of  cocainism  by 
those  of  alcoholism.  It  would  be  impossible  to  find  terms  suf- 
ficiently severe  in  which  to  condemn  the  recklessness  of  those 
who  promiscuously  recommend  such  a  compound  for  all  who 
are  overworked  or  debilitated.  One  firm  actually  has  the  as- 
surance to  advertise  a  preparation  of  this  kind  as  a  remedy  for 
dipsomania.  Truly  this  is  casting  out  devils  by  Beelzebub,  with 
a  vengeance.  Invoking  Beelzebub  for  such  a  purpose  has 
never  been  a  success.  And  I  suspect  that  any  form  of  coca 
wine  will  make  a  great  many  more  dipsomaniacs  than  it  will 
cure." 

Dr.  Walter  N.  Edwards,  F.  C.  S.,  says  of  coca 
wines : — 

"  These  wines  are  sold  as  being  useful  in  an  immense  variety 
of  ailments.  The  following  are  a  few  of  the  many  that  are 
named  upon  the  bottles  or  in  the  circulars  accompanying 
them  : — ■ 

"  Weakness  after  illness, 

"  Nervous  disorders, 

"  Sleeplessness, 

"  Influenza, 

"  Whooping  cough, 

"  Exhaustion  of  mind  and  body, 

"  Allays  thirst, 

"  Restores  digestive  function, 

"  Enables  great  physical  toil  to  be  undergone, 

"  Great  value  in  excesses  of  all  kinds, 

'*  General  debility, 

"  Prevents  colds  and  chills, 

"  Makes  pure,  rich  blood, 


322  ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE. 

**  Anaemia, 

"  Invaluable  after  pleurisy,  pneumonia,  etc., 

"  Aid  to  the  vocal  organs.  , 

"  This  is  a  fairly  respectable  list  of  complaints,  and  the  very 
fact  that  these  preparations  of  coca  wine  are  put  forward  as  a 
cure  for  so  wide  a  range  of  various  complaints  is  in  itself  a 
condemnation  of  them. 

**  When  any  particular  remedy  is  said  to  be  of  universal 
application  for  a  large  number  of  different  complaints  it  may  be 
looked  upon  with  great  suspicion. 

"  It  must  always  be  remembered  that  there  is  the  commercial 
side  to  this  question.  The  proprietors  have  no  particular 
regard  for  the  welfare  of  the  people  ;  their  business  is  to  make 
a  profit,  and  many  of  them  gain  enormous  fortunes.  By  skil- 
ful and  lavish  advertisements,  and  by  carefully  worded  testi- 
monials, they  appeal  to  the  credulity  of  the  public,  and  often  de- 
ceive even  those  who  regard  themselves  as  belonging  to  the 
thinking  classes. 

"  There  are  two  specific  dangers  in  regard  to  these  wines. 
They  are  ordinary  wines,  either  port  or  sherry  for  the  most 
part,  and  therefore  strongly  alcoholic.  The  user  of  them  is  in 
considerable  danger  of  cultivating  a  taste  for  alcohol,  and  cer- 
tainly, there  is  the  greatest  possible  danger  to  any  one  having 
had  the  appetite,  of  reviving  it. 

"  The  dose  is  an  elastic  one,  it  can  be  repeated  with  consider- 
able frequency  three  or  four  times  a  day. 

"  What  would  be  said  of  growing  girls  or  youths  having  re-  ' 
course  three  or  four  times  .a  day  to  the  wine  bottle  ?  This  is 
exactly  what  they  are  doing  when  coca,  and  the  so-called  food 
wines  are  placed  in  their  hands  as  medicine.  They  like  the 
pleasant  taste,  there  is  the  call  of  habit  and  appetite,  and  so 
there  arises  the  greatest  possible  danger  of  a  general  liking  for 
alcoholic  liquors  being  set  up.  The  ailing  man  or  woman  of 
set  years  is  in  similar  danger,  for  they  are  having  recourse  to 


ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE.  323 

alcohol  when  their  powers  of  mind  and  body  are  to  some  extent 
exhausted,  and  they  are  thus  less  able  to  resist  the  fascination 
for  alcohol  that  may  so  quickly  be  brought  into  existence. 

"  Another  element  of  danger  is  that  the  recourse  to  coca  and 
kola  is  an  attempt  to  get  more  out  of  the  body,  and  the  mind, 
than  nature  intended.  Overwork,  overstrain,  worry,  all  produce 
exhaustion  of  physical  and  nervous  power.  Nature  pulls  us  up 
by  asserting  herself,  and  we  feel  run  down  and  seedy,  and,  per- 
haps, quite  unwell.  What  is  wanted  is  rest,  proper  diet,  and 
change.  These  would  quickly  be  restorative,  and  once  again 
we  should  be  fit  for  the  duties  of  life. 

"  In  a  busy  age  there  is  the  strongest  possible  temptation  to 
seek  a  restorative  by  some  occult  method,  rather  than  to  give 
the  rest  and  refreshment  that  nature  demands.  It  is  upon  this 
that  the  whole  trade  in  these  so-called  restoratives  depends. 

"  There  is  no  food  quality  in  alcohol,  cocaine  or  kola, 
but  there  is  in  them  all  a  narcotizing  influence  that  in  its  lesser 
stages  is  hurtful,  and  in  its  greater  stages  disastrous. 

"  The  cocaine  habit  may  be  cultivated  as  easily  as  the  alcohol 
habit,  and  the  two  forms  of  disease,  alcoholism  and  cocainism, 
are  by  no  means  rare.  The  great  factor  in  each  of  them  is  the 
loss  of  will  power,  and  when  that  is  accomplished  the  descent 
to  complete  moral  and  physical  ruin  is  quite  easy. 

"  A  pure  and  simple  life,  in  accord  with  the  laws  of  health 
and  hygiene,  is^the  panacea  both  for  the  maintenance,  and  the 
restoration  of  health,  and  that  is  what  we  should  strive  to  aim 
at,  rather  than  having  recourse  to  drugs  that  are  not  only  ineffec- 
tive, but  positively  dangerous." — United\Temfterance  Gazette. 

In  Dr.  Milner  Fothergill's  Practioners  Hand-book 
of  Treatment,  fourth  edition,  the  following  state- 
ment is  made  : — 

"  Coca  wine,  and  other  medicated  wines  are  largely  sold  to 
people  who  are  considered,  and  consider  themselves,  to  be  total 


324  ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE. 

abstainers.  It  is  not  uncommon  to  hear  the  mother  of  a  family 
say,  •  I  never  allow  my  girls  to  touch  stimulants  of  any  kind, 
but  I  give  them  each  a  glass  of  coca  wine  at  1 1  in  the  morning, 
and  again  at  bedtime.'  Originally  coca  wine  was  made  from 
coca  leaves,  but  it  is  now  commonly  a  solution  of  the  alkaloid, 
in  a  sweet  and  strongly  alcoholic  wine.  This  is  really  the  gist 
of  the  whole  matter ;  coca  wine  is  largely  consumed  by  people 
who  fondly  believe  themselves  to  be  total  abstainers,  and  who 
are  active  enough  in  denouncing  those  who  take  a  little  wine,  or 
a  glass  of  beer  at  their  meals.  The  sooner  their  delusion  is 
dispelled  the  better  for  themselves,  and  for  the  unfortunate 
children  over  whom  they  exercise  supervision." 

Another  physician  tells  of  seeing  a  distinguished 
ecclesiastical  dignitary,  a  sworn  foe  of  alcohol  and 
its  congeners,  giving  his  young  child  a  generous 
daily  allowance  of  one  of  these  wines. 

The  user  of  coca  wines  runs  a  double  risk — an 
alcohol  craving  may  be  revived,  or  created  ;  and,  at 
the  same  time,  cocainism  may  be  set  up,  and 
nothing  but  physical,  mental  and  moral  ruin  follow. 

The  British  Medical  Journal  of  January  23rd, 
1897,  says : — 

"  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  in  many  parts  of  the  world  co- 
caine inebriety  is  largely  on  the  increase.  The  greatest  num- 
ber of  victims  is  to  be  found  among  society  women,  and  among 
women  who  have  adopted  literature  as  a  profession  ;  and  there 
is  no  doubt  that  a  considerable  proportion  of  chronic  cocainists 
have  fallen  under  the  dominion  of  the  drug  from  a  desire  to 
stimulate  their  powers  of  imagination.  Others  have  acquired 
that  habit  quite  innocently  from  taking  coca  wines.  The  symp- 
toms experienced  by  the  victims  of  the  cocaine  habit  are  illu- 
sions   of   sight   and  hearing,   neuromuscular  irritability,   and 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  32$ 

localized  anaesthesia.  After  a  time  insomnia  supervenes,  and 
the  patient  displays  a  curious  hesitancy,  and  an  inability  to  ar- 
rive at  a  decision  on  even  the  most  trivial  subjects." 

Dr.  F.  Coley  says  later  on  in  the  article  before 
referred  to  : — 

"  There  is  another  combination  which,  though  utterly  absurd 
from  a  therapeutical  point  of  view,  is  not  in  itself  quite  so  dan- 
gerous .as  coca  wine.  It  will  probably  do  a  larger  amount  of 
mischief,  however,  because  more  people  take  it.  I  refer  to  the 
various  preparations,  so  largely  advertised,  which  profess  to  be 
compounded  of  port  wine,  extract  of  malt,  and  extract  of  meat. 
To  the  medically  uneducated  public  this  doubtless  seems  a  most 
promising  combination  :  extract  of  meat  for  food,  extract  of 
malt  to  aid  digestion,  port  wine  to  make  blood.  Surely  the  very 
thing  to  strengthen  all  who  are  weak,  and  to  hasten  the  restor- 
ation of  convalescents.  Unfortunately  what  the  advertisements 
say — that  this  stuff  is  largely  prescribed  by  medical  men — is  not 
wholly  untrue. 

"  I  do  not  suppose  that  any  physician  of  anything  like  front 
rank  would  make  such  a  mistake.  But  busy  general  practition- 
ers may  be  excused  if  they  prove  to  be  a  bit  oblivious  of  physi- 
ology, and  so  become  attracted  by  a  formula  which  is  more 
plausible  than  sound.  In  the  first  place,  we  all  know  that  ex- 
tract of  meat  is  not  food  at  all.  From  the  manner  of  its  pro- 
duction, it  cannot  contain  an  appreciable  quantity  of  proteid 
material.  It  consists  mainly  of  creatin,  and  creatinin,  and  salts. 
These  are,  it  is  needless  to  say,  incapable  of  acting  as  food. 
Extract  of  meat,  and  similar  preparations,  have  their  uses  how- 
ever ;  made  into  *  beef-tea,'  their  meaty  flavor  often  enables 
patients  to  take  a  quantity  of  bread,  which  would  otherwise  be 
refused  ;  or  lentil  flour,  or  some  other  matter  may  be  added. 
In  this  way,  though  not  food  itself,  it  becomes  a  most  useful 
aid  to  feeding.  It  is  besides,  a  harmless  stimulant,  especially 
when  taken,  as  it  always  should  be,  hot.     It  should  be  needless 


326  ALCOHOL   AS   A   MEDICINE. 

to  add  that  to  combine  extract  of  meat  with  port  wine  is  simply 
to  ignore  its  real  use.  The  only  intelligible  basis  for  such  an 
invention  must  be  the  wholly  erroneous  notion  that  extract  of 
meat  is  a  food." 

The  prices  asked  for  "  secret  nostrums "  are 
said  by  chemists  to  be  ofttimes  far  beyond  the  value 
of  the  materials.  Of  one  article  the  New  Idea,  a 
druggists'  paper,  says  : — 

"  It  retails  at  $1.50  per  bottle.  Such  an  article  could  be  put 
up  for  less  than  fifteen  cents,  including  bottle,  leaving  by  no 
means  a  small  margin  for  the  profit  of  its  manufacturers." 

The  same  paper  says  of  a  cure  for  catarrh, 
neuralgia,  etc.  sold  in  the  form  of  a  small  ball : — 

"  This  cure  costs  $2.50  per  ball.  A  handsome  profit  cou/d 
be  made  upon  it  at  5  cents  a  ball." 

Some  proprietary  preparations  are  not  harmful, 
but  are  positively  inert.  The  Mass.  State  Board  of 
Health  in  report  of  1896  gives  Kaskine  as  an  ex- 
ample of  these.  Although  sold  at  a  dollar  an  ounce 
it  was  found  to  consist  of  nothing  but  granulated 
sugar  of  the  fine  grade  used  in  homeopathic  pharma- 
cy, without  any  medication  or  flavoring  whatever. 

Dr.  Edward  Von  Adelung  in  an  article  in  Life 
and  Health,  Dec,  1897,  tells  of  a  well  advertised 
cure  for  consumption,  the  analysis  of  which  showed 
it  to  be  composed  of  water,  slightly  colored  by  the 
addition  of  a  very  small  quantity  of  red  wine,  and 
two  mineral  acids,  muriatic  and  impure  sulphuric, 
in  quantities  just  sufficient  to  lend  it  a  taste  !  He 
says  : — 


ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE.  327 

"  Fortuitously  I  had  the  opportunity  of  observing  the  influence 
of  this  remedy  on  a  consumptive  who  took  it  regularly,  and 
who  was  so  enamored  of  its  favorable  action  that  he  gave  up 
his  business  to  conduct  an  agency  for  its  sale.  It  was  not  long 
after  he  had  entered  upon  his  new  vocation  that  I  received 
word  of  his  death,  due  to  pulmonary  hemorrhage." 

The  "  returned  missionary  "  fraud  has  been  ex- 
posed by  different  druggists'  papers,  among  them 
the  New  Idea.  The  "  missionary  "  would  advertise 
a  "  free  cure,"  if  people  would  send  to  him.  The 
"  cure  "  would  be  in  the  form  of  a  prescription. 
There  being  no  drugs  in  any  drugstore  bearing  the 
names  given  in  the  prescription,  the  dupe  was  ex- 
pected to  pay  an  exorbitant  price  for  them  to  the 
philanthropic  "missionary."  In  one  case  of  this 
kind  the  "  medicinal  plants  brought  from  South 
America,  the  only  place  where  they  grew,"  were 
upon  examination  by  chemists  of  the  New  Idea 
found  to  be  ordinary  drugs,  not  one  of  which 
comes    from  South  America. 

The  same  paper  tells  of  another  "South  Ameri- 
can "  fraud,  60,000  bottles  of  which  were  said  to  be 
sold  in  Detroit  in  a  few  weeks,  by  an  itinerating 
vendor. 

A  certain  liver,  and  kidney,  and  constipation 
cure,  sold  in  the  form  of  herbs,  is  said  by  New  Idea 
to  be  chiefly  couch  grass,  and  senna  leaves.  Yet 
it  sells  for  25  cents  for  a  small  package. 

To  this  paper  the  public  is  also  indebted  for  the 
information  that  a  kind  of  wafer  advertised  to  "  cure 


328  ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE. 

in  a  few  days  all  coughs,  colds,  irritation  of  the 
uvula  and  tonsils,  influenza,  bronchitis,  asthma,  sore 
throat,  consumption,  and  all  diseases  of  the  lungs 
and  chest"  was  found  to  consist  wholly  of  sugar  and 
corn  starch ! 

Medical  World  recently  told  of  the  investigation 

of  "  H "  by  Prof.  John  Uri  Lloyd  of  Cincinnati. 

It  was  advertised  as  a  plant  discovered  by  a  doctor 
traveling  in  Florida.  Its  juices  were  said  to  be 
antidotal  to  snake  poisoning,  and  would  also  cure 
the  opium  habit.  Prof.  Lloyd  found  it  to  be  a  liq- 
uid consisting  of  a  solution  of  sulphate  of  mor- 
phine and  salicylic  acid,  in  alcohol  and  glycerine, 
with  suitable  coloring  matter. 

Another  fraud  exposed  by  New  Idea  was  a 
"  cure  "  for  the  peculiar  ills  of  women.  The  cure  is 
put  up  in  the  form  of  little  oblong  blocks  about  a 
half  inch  in  length. 

"  A  circular  accompanies  them,  and  is  well  calculated  to  pro- 
duce alarm  in  the  young.  It  is  another  sample  of  the  demor- 
alizing documents  which  unscrupulous  quacks  are  continually 
circulating  among  the  laity,  in  order  to  create  alarm,  and 
profit  by  this  alarm." 

After  giving  a  description  of  the  diseases  peculiar 
to  the  sex  it  is  stated  that  all  of  these  are  curable 
by  using  eight  dollars  worth  of  this  wonderful  med- 
icine. 

New  Idea  continues  : — 

"  The  cure  consists,  according  to  our  examination,  of  nothing 
but  flour,  made  into  a  paste  and  allowed  to  harden  in  the  form 


ALCOHOL   AS   A   MEDICINE.  329 

of  small  oblong  blocks.  Evidently  the  quack  relied  upon  the 
faith-cure  principle,  and  his  auxiliary  treatment,  as  set  forth  in 
the  rules  of  living  given  in  the  circular." 

While  these  inert  preparations  are  of  the  nature 
of  frauds,  they  will  not  injure  the  health,  nor  make 
drunkards,  or  opium  fiends,  as  the  disguised  prepara- 
tions of  whisky  and  morphine  are  likely  to  do. 

That  the  use  of  patent  medicines  has  made  many 
drunkards  is  a  fact  well  attested.  The  American 
Association  for  the  Study  of  Inebriety  appointed  a 
committee  several  years  ago  to  investigate  the  vari- 
ous nostrums  advertised  especially  for  the  benefit  of 
alcohol  and  opium  inebriates.  The  report  of  this 
committee,  prepared  by  Dr.  N.  Roe  Bradner,  late 
of  the  Pennsylvania  Hospital  for  the  Insane,  in 
speaking  of  the  marvelous  cures  advertised  in  con- 
nection with  the  use  of  these  mixtures,  calls  them 
"  volumes  of  gilded  falsehood,  designed  for  an  inno- 
cent, unsuspecting  public,"  and  adds  : — 

"  The  use  of  such  nostrums  would  do  more  toward  confirm- 
ing than  eradicating  the  habit,  if  it  existed,  and  would  invite 
and  create  addiction  to  an  almost  hopeless  fatality,  where  the 
habit  had  not  previously  existed.  Insanity,  palsy,  idiocy,  and 
many  forms  of  physical,  moral  and  mental  ruin  have  followed 
the  sale  of  these  nostrums  throughout  our  land." 

Dr.  E.  A.  Craighill,  President  of  the  Virginia 
State  Pharmaceutical  Association,  is  quoted  in  the 
July  (1897)  Journal  of  Inebriety,  as  saying: — 

"  In  my  experience  I  have  known  of  men  filling  drunkards' 
graves  who  learned  to  drink  taking  some  advertised  bitters  as 


33°  ALCOHOL  AS  A    MEDICINE. 

legitimate  medicine.  It  would  be  hard  to  estimate  the  number 
of  young  brains  ruined,  and  the  maturer  opium  wrecks  from 
nostrums  of  this  nature.  I  could  write  a  volume  on  the  mis- 
chief that  is  being  done  every  day  to  body,  mind  and  soul,  all 
over  the  land,  by  the  thousands  of  miserable  frauds  that  are  be- 
ing poured  down  the  throats  of  not  only  ignorant  people,  but, 
alas,  intelligent  ones,  too."  j 

A  lady  informed  the  writer  recently  that  her 
brother  had  taken  forty  bottles  of  one  of  these 
preparations,  and  had  become  a  drunkard  through  it. 

Many  seem  unaware  that  the  ethics  of  the  medi- 
cal profession  restrain  reputable  physicians  from  ad- 
vertising themselves  or  their  remedies,  so  that  these 
much-lauded  patent  medicines  are  put  upon  the 
market  by  quacks,  never  by  physicians  of  good 
standing.  It  is  purely  a  money-making  enterprise, 
without  consideration  of  the  health  or  destruction 
of  the  people.  It  is  popularly  supposed  that  phy- 
sicians decry  these  things  from  fear  that  their  sale 
will  injure  regular  practice.  This  is  another  error 
as  they  increase  work  for  the  doctor  by  aggravating 
existing  trouble,  as  well  as  causing  disease  where 
there  was  only  slight  disturbance. 

Dr.  F.  E.  Stewart,  Ph.  G.,  of  Detroit,  Mich.,  says 
in  the  October,  1897,  Life  and  Health  : — 

"  Taking  all  these  facts  into  consideration,  it  is  apparent  that 
the  patent,  trade-mark  and  copyright  laws  should  be  so  inter- 
preted and  administered  by  the  court  that  they  will  secure  the 
greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number,  and  aid  in  attaining  the 
end  of  government,  viz.,  *  moral,  intellectual  and  physical  per- 
fection.'    It  is  not  the  object  of  these  laws  to  create  odious  mon- 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  33 1 

opolies,  to  throw  a  mantle  of  protection  over  fraud,  to  enable 
quacks  and  charlatans  to  encroach  on  the  domain  of  legitimate 
medical  and  pharmacal  practice,  or  to  support  an  advertising 
business  designed  to  mislead  the  public  in  regard  to  the  nature 
and  value  of  medicines  as  curative  agents.  The  morals  of  the 
community  are  injured  by  some  of  this  advertising,  intellectual 
vigor  is  impaired  by  the  use  of  many  things  advertised,  and 
physical,  as  well  as  moral,  degradation  frequently  results.  Crime 
is  often  inculcated — even  the  crime  of  murder,  that  the  nostrum 
manufacturer  may  profit  thereby.  Cures  for  incurable  diseases 
are  promised,  and  guaranteed.  Every  scheme  that  human  and 
devilish  ingenuity  can  devise  to  wring  money  from  its  victim  is 
resorted  to,  which  can  be  employed  without  actually  bringing 
the  advertisers  into  court.  All  this  wicked  quackery  parades 
under  the  guise  of  '  patent '  medicines,  and  asks  the  protection 
of  our  courts.  It  is  time  for  the  medical  and  pharmaceutic  pro- 
fessions to  unite,  and  unmask  this  monster,  and  show  the  public 
its  true  nature.  And  this  can  be  accomplished  in  no  better  way 
than  through  a  study  of  the  object  of  the  laws  which  the  secret 
nostrum  manufacturers  are  now  endeavoring  to  prostitute  for 
their  own  advantage,  and  the  teaching  of  the  public  what  these 
laws  were  enacted  for. 

"  The  secret  nostrum  business  in  some  of  its  phases  has  as- 
siduously found  its  way  into  the  medical  arts,  and  physicians, 
pharmacists,  and  manufacturing  houses,  seem  to  have  forgotten, 
to  a  certain  extent,  the  obligations  which  they  owe  to  the  public. 
Medicine,  in  all  its  departments,  must  be  practiced  in  accord 
with  scientific,  and  professional  requirement,  or  it  will  sink  to 
the  level  of  a  commercial  business.  The  e?td  of  medical  prac- 
tice is  service  to  suffering  humanity,  7iot  the  acquisition  of 
money.  Money  making  is  a  necessary  part  of  the  practice  of 
medical  arts,  not,  however,  its  chief  object.  This  fact  must  be 
kept  in  view  always.  Once  lost  sight  of,  and  trade  competition 
substituted  for  competition  in  serving  the  interests  of  the  sick, 
medical  and  pharmacal  practice  will  become  an  ignoble  scrabble 


332  ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE. 

for  wealth,  in  which  the  sick  become  victims  of  avarice  and 
greed.  Better  set  free  a  pack  of  ravening  wolves  in  a  com- 
munity than  to  change  the  end  of  medical  practice  to  a  commer- 
cial one,  for  physicians  and  pharmacists  would  soon  degenerate 
into  quacks  and  charlatans,  and  take  shameful  advantage  of 
the  community  for  gain." 

Where  Dr.  Stewart  speaks  of  murder  he  probably 
refers  to  the  sale  of  abort  of acients. 

Dr.  Roe  Bradner,  of  Philadelphia,  in  his  report 
upon  alleged  cures  for  drunkenness  before  the  So- 
ciety for  the  Study  of  Inebriety  several  years  ago, 
said  : — 

"  There  is  a  certain  other  class  of  so-called  remedies,  pre- 
pared sometimes  by  physicians  and  pharmacists,  that  do  a  great 
deal  of  harm.  I  allude  to  the  '  non-secret  proprietaries  '  that 
claim  to  publish  their  formulas,  but  do  not.  One  in  particular 
has  made  thousands,  and  likely  tens  of  thousands,  of  chloral 
drunkards,  dethroned  the  reason  of  as  many  more,  besides 
having  killed  outright  very  many.  It  is  impossible  for  any  one 
to  estimate  the  mischief  that  is  being  done  by  such  remedies, 
and  the  physicians  who  recommend  them." 

There  is  evident  need  for  laws  in  America,  such  as 
Germany,  and  some  other  countries  have,  compel- 
ling manufacturers  of  these  preparations  to  print 
formulae  upon  the  labels.  Then  State  Boards  of 
Health  should  be  empowered,  money  being  voted 
for  the  purpose,  to  occasionally  examine  such  med- 
icines to  see  whether  or  not  the  ingredients  corre- 
spond to  the  formula. 

There  are  great  difficulties  in  the  way  of  enforc- 
ing such  a  law,  yet  it  would  accomplish  some  good. 


ALCOHOL   AS  A    MEDICINE.  333 

As  things  are  at  present,  a  patent-medicine  manu- 
facturer may  use  narcotics  for  years ;  analysts  may 
publish  that  he  is  so  doing,  and  the  analysis  may 
go  undisputed.  Then  the  manufacturer  may  see  by 
the  trend  of  public  opinion  that  to  advertise  that  he 
is  making  without  narcotics  will  catch  trade,  and  he 
does  so  make.  Now,  if  any  one  has- quoted  in  print 
the  analysis,  undisputed  for  years,  that  this  man's 
preparations  contain  narcotics,  said  manufacturer 
may  after  time  enough  has  elapsed  for  none  of  his 
old  material  to  be  found  on  the  market,  enter  suit 
for  damages  against  the  person  so  quoting.  While 
it  may  not  be  impossible  to  prove  that  he  did  for- 
merly use  narcotics,  it  means  large  expense  to  defend 
such  a  suit,  and,  as  a  rule,  the  patent-medicine  man 
has  millions,  and  the  one  quoting  has  but  little. 
Consequently  names  of  preparations,  unless  those 
examined  by  a  State  Board  of  Health,  would  better 
not  be  given  by  those  opposing  the  evil  of  concealed 
alcohols,  and  its  congeners. 

It  is  true,  also,  that  after  a  manufacturer  has 
impressed  the  public  mind  with  the  fact  that  he  is 
not  using  narcotics,  there  is  no  law  in  America 
compelling  him  to  continue  making  them  so  ;  he  may 
return  to  the  use  of  these  ingredients  whenever  he  so 
pleases,  none  daring  to  make  him  afraid. 

This  does  not  say  that  the  better  class  of  manu- 
facturers of  proprietary  preparations  would  adver- 
tise their  medicines  as  different  from  what  they 
really  are  ;  it   means   only  that   there  are  no  laws, 


334  ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE. 

unless    in    a    few    states,    properly   governing    the 
manufacture   of  these   articles,  so   that   the  people 
*are  at  the  mercy  of  unscrupulous  men  who  may  be 
in  this  business. 


CHAPTER  XIV.  | 

"DRUGGING." 

The  main  reason  why  so  many  people  use  patent 
medicines  is  the  popular  supposition  that  drugs 
cure  disease.  This  is  a  great  error.  Drugs  never 
cure  disease.  Nature  alone  has  power  to  heal. 
There  are  agents,  which  in  the  hands  of  a  trained 
and  painstaking  physician  may  assist  nature,  but 
the  physician  needs  to  understand  something  of  the 
idiosyncrasies  of  his  patient's  system,  or  the  use  of 
these  agents  may  do  great  harm  instead  of  good. 
Those  medical  men  who  have  made  the  most  dili- 
gent study  of  health  and  disease  assert  as  their 
deliberate  opinion  that  excessive  professional  drug- 
ging has  been  decidedly  destructive  of  human  life. 

Dr.  Jacob  Bigelow,  professor  in  the  medical 
department  of  Harvard  University,  in  a  work 
published  a  few  years  ago  stated  as  his  belief  that 
the  unbiased  opinion  of  most  medical  men  of  sound 
judgment,  and  long  experience,  is  that  the  amount 
of  death  and  disaster  in  the  world  would  be  less,  if 
all  diseases  were  left  to  themselves,  than  it  now  is 
under  the  multiform,  reckless,  and  contradictory 
modes    of    practice,    with    which    practitioners    of 

335 


33°  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

diverse  denominations  carry  on  their  differences,  at 

the  expense  of  the  patient. 

Sir  John  Forbes,  M.  D.,  F.  R.  S.,  said:— 

"  Some   patients  get  well   with  the  aid  of  medicine,  more 

without  it,  and  still  more  in  spite  of  it." 

Dr.  Bostwick,  author  of  The  History  of  Medicine, 
said : — 

"  Every  dose  of  medicine  given  is  a  blind  experiment  upon 
the  vitality  of  the  patient." 

Dr.  James  Johnson,  editor  of  the  Medico-Chirurgi- 
tal  Reviezv,  says  : — 

"  I  declare  as  my  conscientious  conviction  founded  on  long 
experience  and  reflection,  that  if  there  were  not  a  single  physi- 
cian, surgeon,  man-midwife,  chemist,  apothecary,  druggist 
nor  drug  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  there  would  be  less  sickness 
and  less  mortality  than  now  prevail." 

Prof.  J.  W.  Carson,  of  the  New  York  College  of 
Physicians  and  Surgeons,  says  : — 

"  We  do  not  know  whether  our  patients  recover  because  we 
give  them  medicine,  or  because  nature  cures  them.  Perhaps 
bread-pills  would  cure  as  many  as  medicine." 

Prof.  Alonzo  Clark,  of  the  same  college,  has 
said  : — 

"  In  their  zeal  to  do  good  physicians  have  done  much  harm  ; 
they  have  hurried  many  to  the  grave  who  would  have  recovered 
if  left  to  nature." 

Prof.  Martin  Paine,  of  the  New  York  University 
Medical  College,  said  : — 

"  Drug  medicines  do  but  cure  one  disease  by  producing 
another." 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  337 

Dr.  Marshall  Hall,  F.  R.  S.  :— 

"  Thousands  are  annually  slaughtered  in  the  quiet  sick- 
room." 

Dr.  Adam  Smith  : — 

"  The  chief  cause  of  quackery  outside  the  profession  is  the 
real  quackery  in  the  profession." 

Prof.  Gilman  : — 

'■  The  things  that  are  administered  for  the  cure  of  scarlet 
fever  and  measles  kill  far  more  than  those  diseases  kill." 

Prof.  Barker,  of  New  York  Medieal  College : — 
"  The   drugs  that  are  administered   for  the  cure  of  scarlet 
fever  kill  far  more  patients  than  the  disease,  does." 

Prof.  Parker  : — 

"  As  we  place  more  confidence  in  nature,  and  less  in  prepar- 
ations of  the  apothecary,  mortality  diminishes." 

The  examining  physician  of  a  large  insurance 
company  in  New  York  said  to  a  Mercury  re- 
porter:— 

"  The  primary  cause  of  so  many  cases  of  la  grippe  in  this 
and  other  cities  is  the  almost  universal  habit  of  drug  taking 
from  the  milder  tonics  to  patent  medicines.  Whenever  the 
average  man  or  woman  feels  depressed  or  slightly  ill,  resort  is 
made  at  once  to  medicine,  more  or  less  strong.  If  they  would 
try  to  find  out  the  cause  of  the  trouble,  and  seek  to  obviate  it 
by  regulating  their  mode  of  living,  the  general  health  of  the 
community  would  be  better.  The  drug  habit  tends  continually 
to  lower  the  tone  of  the  system.  The  more  it  is  indulged  in 
the  more  apparent  becomes  the  necessity  of  continuing  the 
downhill  course.  The  majority  of  persons  do  not  look  beyond 
the  fact  that  they  seem  to  feel  better  after  the  use  of  a  stimulat- 
ing drug,  or  patent  medicine.     This  feeling  comes  from  a  be- 


338  ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE. 

numbing  action  of  the  drug,  because  it  has  no  uplifting  action. 
With  the  system  in  such  a  weakened  state,  the  microbes  of  the 
disease  find  excellent  ground  to  grow." 

Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg  says  in  the  April,  1899,  Bulle- 
tin of  the  A.  M.  T.  A.  .•— 

"  Every  drug  capable  of  producing  an  artificial  exhilaration  of 
spirits,  a  pleasure  which  is  not  the  result  of  the  natural  play  of 
the  vital  functions,  is  necessarily  mischievous  in  its  tendencies, 
and  its  use  is  intemperance,  whether  its  name  be  alcohol,  to- 
bacco, opium,  cocaine,  coca,  kola,  hashish,  Siberian  mushroom, 
caffeine,  betel-nuts,  mate  or  any  other  of  the  score  or  more 
enslaving  drugs  known  to  pharmacology.  As  the  result  of  the 
depression  which  follows  the  unnatural  elevation  of  sensation 
resulting  from  the  use  of  one  of  these  drugs,  the  second  appli- 
cation finds  the  subject  on  a  little  lower  level  than  the  first,  so 
that  an  increased  dose  is  necessary  to  produce  the  same  inten- 
sity of  pleasure  or  the  same  degree  of  artificial  felicity  as  the 
first.  The  larger  dose  is  followed  by  still  greater  depression 
which  demands  a  still  larger  dose  as  its  antidote,  and  thus  there 
is  started  a  series  of  ever-increasing  doses,  and  ever-increasing 
baneful  after-affects,  which  work  the  ultimate  ruin  of  the  drug 
victim.  All  drugs  which  enslave  are  alike  in  this  regard,  how- 
ever much  they  may  differ  otherwise  in  their  physiological  ef- 
fects. Alcohol  is  universally  recognized  as  only  one  member  of 
a  large  family  of  intoxicating  drugs,  each  of  which  is  capable 
of  producing  specific  functional  and  organic  mischief,  besides 
the  vital  deterioration  common  to  the  use  of  so-called  felicity- 
producing  drugs. 

"  Is  it  not  evident,  then,  that  in  combating  the  use  of  alcohol 
we  are  attacking  only  one  member  of  a  numerous  family  of 
enemies  to  human  life  and  happiness,  every  one  of  which  must 
be  exterminated  before  the  evil  of  intemperance  will  be  up- 
rooted ?  " 

Among  the  most  popular  drugs  for  self-prescrip- 


ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE.  339 

tion  at  the  present  time  are  the  coal-tar  products. 
Of  these  Dr.  N.  S.  Davis  has  said  : — 

"  Only  a  few  years  since,  the  profession  were  taught  to  re- 
gard the  degree  of  pyrexia,  or  heat,  as  the  chief  element  of 
danger  in  all  the  acute  general  diseases.  Consequently,  to  con- 
trol the  pyrexia  became  the  leading  object  of  treatment ;  and 
whatever  would  do  this  promptly,  and  at  the  same  time  allay 
pain  and  promote  rest,  found  favor  at  the  bedside  of  the  pa- 
tient. 

"  It  was  soon  ascertained  that  antipyrin,  antifebrin,  phenacetin 
and  other  analogous  products,  if  given  in  sufficient  doses,  would 
reduce  the  heat,  and  allay  the  pains  with  great  certainty  and 
promptness,  not  only  in  continued  fevers,  but  also  in  rheuma- 
tism, influenza,  or  la  grippe,  etc.  ;  and  thus  their  use  soon  be- 
came popular  with  both  the  profession  and  the  public.  No  one, 
however,  undertook  to  first  ascertain  by  strictly  scientific 
appliances  the  actual  pathological  processes  causing  the  pyrexia 
in  each  form  of  disease,  or  even  to  determine  whether  in  any 
given  case  the  increased  heat  was  the  result  of  increased  heat 
production,  or  diminished  heat  dissipation.  Neither  were  any 
of  the  remedies  subjected  to  such  experimental  investigation  as 
to  determine  their  influence  on  the  elements  of  the  blood,  the 
internal  distribution  of  oxygen,  the  metabolism  of  the  tissues, 
or  on  the  activity  of  the  eliminations.  Consequently  their 
exhibition  was  wholly  empirical,  and  the  one  that  subdued  the 
pyrexia  most  promptly  was  given  the  preference.  Yet  we  all 
know  that  the  pyrexia  invariably  returned  as  soon  as  the  effects 
of  each  dose  were  exhausted,  and  in  a  few  years  the  results 
showed  that  while  the  antipyretics  served  to  keep  down  the 
pyrexia,  and  give  each  case  the  appearance  of  doing  well,  the 
average  duration  of  the  cases,  and  their  mortality,  were  both  in- 
creased. 

"  Step  by  step  experimental  therapeutic  investigations  have 
proved  that  the  whole  class  of  coal-tar  antipyretics  reduce  ani- 


340  ALCOHOL   AS   A   MEDICINE. 

mal  heat  by  impairing  the  capacity  of  the  hemoglobin  and  cor- 
puscular elements  of  the  blood  to  receive  and  distribute  free 
oxygen,  and  thereby  reduce  temperature  by  diminishing  heat, 
production,  nerve  sensibility  and  tissue  metabolism.  There- 
fore, while  each  dose  temporarily  reduces  the  fever,  it  retards 
the  most  important  physiological  processes  on  which  the  living 
system  depends  for  resisting  the  effects  of  toxic  agents  ;  namely, 
oxidation  and  elimination.  This  not  only  encourages  the  reten- 
tion of  toxic  agents  and  natural  excretory  materials  by  which 
specific  fevers  are  protracted,  but  it  greatly  increases  the  num-« 
ber  of  cases  of  pneumonia  that  complicate  the  epidemic  influ- 
enza, or  la  grippe,  as  it  has  occurred  since  1888-89. 

"  The  bad  work  that  people  make  in  dosing  themselves  with 
patent  medicines,  without  a  physician's  prescription  is  not  un- 
frequently  punctuated  with  a  sudden  death  from  overdosing 
with   antipyrin,   sulphonal,   or  some   other   coal-tar     prepara-':- 
tion." 

Dr.  C.  H.  Shepard,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  says  : — 
"  Quinine  is  a  most  fatal  drug.  Of  course,  it  is  the  orthodox 
treatment  for  malarial  conditions,  but  quinine  never  did  nor 
never  can  cure  malaria  or  any  other  disease.  The  action 
brought  about  by  its  use  is  simply  to  benumb  the  nervous 
activity  and  interfere  with  the  natural  action  of  the  system  to 
throw  off  the  poison,  which  is  expressed  by  the  chill.  Because 
of  this  interference  with  the  manifestation  or  symptom  of  the 
disease,  many  imagine  that  the  disease  is  being  cured,  but 
there  never  was  a  greater  mistake.  A  drug  disease  is  added  to 
the  original  disease.  This  is  shown  by  the  invariable  depres- 
sion that  follows  the  administration  of  the  drug,  and  the  length 
of  time  required  to  recuperate,  which  imperils  restoration,  and 
sometimes  hastens  the  final  results.  This  is  ordinarily  met  by 
the  use  of  what  are  called  stimulants,  that  is,  more  drugs,  and  the 
last  state  is  worst  than  the  first ;  the'  poor  patient  is  thus  made 
the  victim  of  a  triple  wrong,  which  only  a  most  vigorous  consti- 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  34I 

tution  can  pass  through  and  live,  and  even  then  he  is  crippled 
and  made  more  liable  to  whatever  disease  may  come  along 
ever  afterward. 

"  Disease  is  not  entity  to  be  killed  by  a  shot  from  a  profes- 
sional gun,  but  a  condition,  an  effort  of  outraged  nature  to  free 
itself  from  an  incumbrance,  and  should  be  aided  rather  than 
hindered  by  the  administration  of  any  nerve  irritant.  There 
never  will  come  a  time  when  the  laws  of  health  can  be  evaded. 
Nor  is  there  any  vicarious  atonement.  The  full  penalty  of  dis- 
obedience will  invariably  be  exacted.  The  hunt  for  a  panacea  is 
as  sure  to  be  disappointing  in  the  future  as  it  has  been  in  the 
past." 

A  writer  in  the  Brooklyn  Citizen  says  : — 

"  Few  people  are  aware  of  the  extent  of  a  peculiar  kind  of 
dissipation  known  as  ginger-drinking.  The  article  used  is  the 
essence  of  ginger,  such  as  is  put  up  in  the  several  proprietary 
preparations  known  to  the  trade,  or  the  alcohol  extract  ordinarily 
sold  over  the  druggist's  counter.  Having  once  acquired  a  liking 
for  it,  the  victim  becomes  as  much  a  slave  to  his  appetite  as  the 
opium  eater  or  the  votary  of  cocaine.  In  its  effect  it  is  much 
the  most  injurious  of  all  such  practices,  for  in  the  course  of 
time  it  destroys  the  coating  of  the  stomach,  and  dooms  its  vic- 
tim to  a  slow  and  agonizing  death. 

"  The  druggist  who  told  me  about  the  thing  says  that  as 
ginger  essence  contains  about  one  hundred  per  cent,  alcohol, 
and  whisky  less  than  fifty  per  cent.,  the  former  is  therefore 
twice  as  intoxicating.  In  fact,  this  is  the  reason  why  it  is  used 
by  hardened  old  topers  whose  stomachs  are  no  longer  capable 
of  intoxicating  stimulation  from  whisky.  They  need  the  more 
powerful  agency  of  the  pure  alcohol  in  the  ginger  extract.  He 
told  me  that  he  had  two  regular  customers,  one  a  woman,  who 
had  ginger  on  several  occasions  for  stomachic  pains.  The  re- 
lief it  afforded  her  was  so  grateful  that  she  took  it  upon  any 
recurrence  of  her  trouble.     She  found,  too,  that  the  slight  ex- 


342  ALCOHOL   AS  A    MEDICINE. 

hilaration  of  the  alcohol  banished  mental  depression.  In  this 
way  she  got  to  using  it  regularly,  and  finally  to  such  excess 
that  she  was  often  grossly  intoxicated.  Large  doses  produce  a 
quiet  stupor  ;  additional  doses  induce  a  profound  lethargic 
slumber,  which  lasts  in  some  cases  for  twenty-four  hours.  His 
other  customer  was  a  peddler,  who  came  at  a  certain  hour 
every  morning,  bought  a  four-ounce  bottle  and  drank  its  con- 
tents by  noon.  The  man  craved  the  stuff  so  ardently  that  he 
was  unable  to  go  about  his  business  until  he  set  the  machinery 
of  his  stomach  in  operation,  and  started  the  circulation  of  the 
blood  by  means  of  the  fiery  draught.  He  says  that  the  habit 
is  well  known  to  the  drug  trade." 

"  The  morphia  habit,  the  cocaine  habit,  the  chloral  habit,  and 
other  poison  habits  which  are  prevalent  in  this  and  other 
countries,  are  only  different  manifestations  of  a  wide-spread 
and  apparently  increasing  love  for  drugs  which  benumb  or  ex- 
cite the  nerves,  which  seems  to  characterize  our  modern  civili- 
zation. Indeed,  there  appears  to  be,  at  the  present  time, 
almost  a  mania  for  the  discovery  of  some  new  nerve-tickle,  or 
some  novel  means  of  fuddling  the  senses.  It  is  indeed  high 
time  that  the  medical  profession  raised,  with  one  accord,  its 
voice  in  solemn  protest  against  the  use  of  all  nerve-obtunding 
and  felicity  producing  drugs,  which  are  all,  without  exception, 
toxic  agents,  working  mischief  and  only  mischief  in  the  hu- 
man body." — Dr.  J.  H.  KELLOGG. 

Dr.  Frederic  C.  Coley,  in  the  October,  1899, 
Medical  Temperance  Review,  sounds  a  warning 
against  a  popular  drug  preparation  known  as 
chlorodyne  as  follows  : — 

"  Chlorodyne  is  a  much  advertised  combination  of  drugs  of 
which  morphine  is  the  most  important.  I  understand  that 
analysis  of  the  best  known  (i.  e.,  most  advertised)  kinds  gives 
a  strength  of  that  drug  about  equal  to  the  Liquor  Morphinae 
hydrochloratis  of  the  pharmacopeia. 


^V     OF  THE      *>* 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  343 

"  That  such  a  medicament  should  be  pleasant  to  the  taste,  is 
by  no  means  an  unmixed  advantage.  That  it  should  be 
readily  accessible — to  be  bought  at  any  chemist's — no  questions 
asked  as  to  the  use  to  which  it  is  to  be  put — is  a  serious 
danger.  That  it  should  be  recommer/.ded  in  advertisements  for 
general  use  as  a  remedy  for  diseases  the  danger  of  which 
it  would  seriously  aggravate — is  an  iniquity. 

"  I  have  before  me  a  religious  (!)  publication  wherein  chloro- 
dyne  is  advertised  as  '  the  best  known  remedy  for  whooping- 
cough,  bronchitis  and  asthma.'  Considering  that  whooping- 
cough  is  especially  a  disease  of  children,  and  that  children  are 
dangerously  susceptible  to  the  influence  of  morphine,  it  is  (to 
say  the  least)  risky  to  recommend  chlorodyne  for  use  by  un- 
skilled persons  in  the  treatment  of  whooping-cough.  As  to 
bronchitis,  the  merest  tyro  in  medicine  knows  the  danger  of 
suppressing  the  cough  by  the  administration  of  narcotics, 
especially  any  preparation  of  opium,  of  morphine.  To  do  so  is 
apt  to  result  in  an  accumulation  of  secretion  in  the  bronchial 
tubes,  which  intensifies  the  distress  of  the  patient,  and  may 
be  gravely  dangerous  to  life. 

"  Chlorodyne,  as  a  remedy  for  asthma,  is  open  to  the  very 
strongest  objections.  In  the  first  place,  I  think  my  readers  will 
agree  with  me  that,  even  as  a  mere  palliative,  chlorodyne 
would  not  be  the  most  generally  effective  drug  that  could  be 
chosen.  But  in  those  cases  in  which  it  did  give  present  relief, 
the  advantage  would  be  gained  at  terrible  risk.  Those  who 
have  the  widest  practical  knowledge  of  asthma,  are  most  con-' 
scious  of  the  danger  of  treating  it  by  narcotics.  The  more 
such  remedies  are  employed  in  cases  of  spasmodic  asthma,  the 
more  they  are  called  for.  Their  habitual  use  is  followed  by  an 
increase  in  the  frequency,  and  severity,  of  the  attacks,  which 
leads  of  course  to, the  constantly  increasing  craving  for  the 
narcotic  in  stronger  doses. 

"  That  it  may  not  be  supposed  that  I  am  giving  an  alarm, 
based  merely  on  theoretical  considerations,  I  may  state  that  I 


344  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

know  of  a  case  in  which  an  asthmatic  patient  began  to  take 
chlorodyne  for  the  relief  of  his  dyspnoea.  He  was  only 
rescued  from  slavery  to  the  drug,  after  a  fearful  struggle,  by 
the  help  of  his  wife  and  daughter. 

"  Another  advertisement  of  chlorodyne  states  that  it  'rapidly 
cuts  short  all  attacks  of  epilepsy  and  hysteria,'  and  '  is  the 
true  palliative  in  neuralgia.'  As  regards  epilepsy,  the  state- 
ment is  simply  nonsense.  An  epileptic  fit  would  be  over 
before  chlorodyne,  or  any  other  such  remedy,  could  be  admin- 
istered. But  the  Devil  himself  could  hardly  contrive  a  more 
certain  method  of  producing  morphinomaniacs  in  large 
numbers,  than  to  recommend  a  preparation  of  morphine,  to  be 
taken  at  the  patient's  own  discretion  (or  indiscretion)  for  the 
relief  of  neuralgia,  or  hysteria. 

"  What  should  we,  as  medical  men,  say  of  a  chemist  who, 
being  told  of  a  child  suffering  from  whooping-cough,  or  an  old 
man  dangerously  ill  of  bronchitis,  should  venture,  on  his  own 
responsibility,  to  recommend,  and  supply  as  a  remedy,  a  medi- 
cine containing  a  pretty  strong  dose  of  morphine  ?  I  think  we 
should  unanimously  describe  that  as  the  most  horribly  reckless 
« counter  prescribing '  which  we  had  ever  heard  of.  If  harm 
came  of  it,  the  coroner  might  reasonably  commit  the  chemist 
for  trial  for  manslaughter.  And  yet  the  advertisers  of  chloro- 
dyne do  not  hesitate  to  incur  this  frightful  responsibility  whole- 
sale. 

"  But,  great  as  are  the  physical  dangers  attending  the  common 
use  of  chlorodyne,  the  moral  dangers  are  greater  still.  How 
could  it  be  otherwise  ?  Concoct  a  powerful  narcotic  nostrum, 
not  unpleasant  to  taste,  and  offer  it  for  sale  to  the  general  pub- 
lic, recommending  it  for  the  relief  of  pains,  and  other  disagree- 
ables, liable  to  frequent  recurrence,  what  could  be  more 
certainlv  predicted  than  the  production  of  numerous  cases  of 
moral  wreckage  through  formation  of  the  morphine  habit? 
No  one  but  a  lunatic  would  expect  any  different  result. 


#  #  #  *  * 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  34$ 

"  No  publication,  which  claims  a  high  moral  character,  should 
admit  advertisements  of  chlorodyne.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say 
that  many  so-called  religious  periodicals  are  shamefully,  and 
abominably,  unscrupulous  as  to  the  quack  advertisements 
which  they  admit.  If  they  insist  on  the  right  to  make  money 
by  publishing  cruelly  fraudulent  lies,  whereby  they  endanger 
the  health  and  lives  of  their  ill-informed  and  credulous  readers,, 
they  should  at  least  hesitate  to  make  profit  by  encouraging  a 
trade,  which  cannot  be  carried  on  without  great  peril  to  the 
souls,  as  well  as  to  the  bodies  of  its  victims." 

A  new  drug  which  is  now  being  advertised  as  a 
great  nerve  restorer  is  kola,  made  from  the  nut  of 
the  Cola  acuminata,  a  tree  which  is  a  native  of  the 
tropical  parts  of  the  western  coast  of  Africa,  but  is 
cultivated  in  other  tropical  countries. 

Pharmaceutical  Products  warns  against  this  drug 
thus  : — 

"  Kola  has  been  taken  up  by  people  who  would  never  enslave 
themselves  to  rum  or  -opium,  because  it  is  announced  as  a 
stimulant  without  reaction.  That  is  sheerest  nonsense. 
There  must  be  reaction  from  the  exhilaration  of  any  stimulant. 
The  first  effect  of  kola  is  hardly  noticeable  ;  the  man  who  takes 
it  simply  feels  refreshed,  but  after  eight  or  ten  hours  the  heart's 
action  is  increased  enormously  ;  then  later,  in  the  habitual  kola 
drinker,  there  is  the  lassitude,  the  nervous  weakness,  and  the 
tremulousness  that  ensue  from  over-drinking.  It  is  in  the 
insidiousness  of  the  drug  that  the  danger  lies.  The  important 
point  for  the  public  to  bear  in  mind  is,  that  kola  is  not  harm- 
less, but  must  be  used  with  the  same  caution  as  opium,  or 
morphine." 

The  Therapeutic  Gazette  says  : — 

"  Kola  and  coca,  while  they  temporarily  cause  work  done  by 
means  of   nerve  force  to  seem  lighter,  do  so  only  by  using  up- 


34-6  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

those  units  of   force  which  a  man  ought  most  sacredly  to  keep 
as  his  reserve.-fund." 

The  Bulletin  of  the  A.  M.  T.  A.  cries  out  the 
warning  thus : — 

"  Nearly  all  the  leading  manufacturers  of  drugs  are  just  now- 
placing  upon  the  market  various  alcoholic,  and  other  prepara- 
tions of  kola,  an  Eastern  drug  to  which  is  ascribed  the  most 
magical  power  as  a  brain  and  nerve  restorer.  The  physiolog- 
ical effects  of  this  substance  show  it  to  be  closely  allied  to 
caffeine,  which  Lehman  long  ago  proved  to  be  a  toxic  drug,  and 
•capable  of  producing  most  profound  narcotic  effects*. 

"  Kola  is  largely  sold  in  the  form  of  an  elixir  or  cordial, 
which  contains  a  large  percentage  of  alcohol,  and  it  is  reason- 
able to  suppose  that  the  temporary  exhilaration  produced  by 
the  use  of  this  drug,  either  with,  or  without,  its  alcoholic  mix- 
ture, will  be  the  means  of  leading  a  large  number  of  persons  to 
the  use  of  alcohol  in  some  form,  or  to  the  employment  of  other 
narcotics  ;  indeed  it  is  possible  that  we  shall  soon  be  called 
upon  to  treat  the  victims  of  the  kola  habit. 

"  The  assertion  made  by  many,  that  kola  is  a  perfectly 
harmless  substance,  is  entirely  erroneous.  Every  drug  which 
exhilarates,  or  narcotizes,  is  necessarily  injurious,  as  a  natural 
consequence  of  its  peculiar  effect  upon  the  brain  and  nervous 
system." 

Young  people  should  be  warned  against  a  drink 
now  sold  at  soda  fountains.  It  is  called  Coca-Kola, 
and  contains  these  drugs,  if  made  according  to 
formula.  Kola  is  also  being  added  to  some  brands 
of  cocoa. 

The  use  of  cocaine  is  advancing  rapidly  in  this 
■country.  The  following  article  is  taken  from  The 
Banner  of  Gold,  of  Feb.,  1899  : — 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  347 

"  Value  of  cocaine  leaves  imported  at  the  port 

of  New  York  in  1894 $14,284 

Imported  in  1897 54, 122 

Indicated  value  of  imports  for  1898 75>°°° 

"  In  these  simple  figures  are  contained  the  elements  of  a 
warning  sermon  that  would  startle  all  America.  We  seem  to 
be  rapidly  becoming  a  nation  of  cocaine  fiends.  If  the  number 
of  those  addicted  to  the  use  of  the  dreadful  drug  continues  to 
increase  at  the  present  rate,  the  importation  of  what  was  origin- 
ally regarded  as  a  blessed  alleviation  of  pain,  will  have  to  be 
classed  with  opium,  and  its  use  prohibited  by  law,  except  for 
medicinal  purposes. 

"  At  present  the  cocaine  fiend  can  purchase  the  drug  without 
trouble,  and  the  ease  with  which  it  is  taken  is  a  fatal  recom- 
mendation to  those  who  crave  a  nerve-deadener.  No  laborious 
cooking  of  pills  over  a  lamp,  cleaning  of  implements,  or  trouble- 
some necessity  for  secrecy,  as  with  the  use  of  opium.  'Cocaine 
can  be  taken  at  any  time,  with  scarcely  any  trouble,  and  with- 
out a  soul  besides  the  user  being  aware  of  his  being  in  the  toils. 

"  At  first,  that  is.  It  will  not  be  long  before  every  intimate 
friend  will  observe  a  change,  a  gradual  and  scarcely  perceptible 
change,  come  over  the  appearance  and  general  conduct  of  the 
cocaine  fiend. 

"  Begun  in  many  cases  in  a  legitimate  way,  as  an  anaesthetic, 
the  surprisingly  pleasant  effect  is  sought  for  again  by  the  one 
who  has  had  a  glimpse  at  the  portals  of  the  elysium.  This  is 
the  beginning  of  the  terrible  habit.  The  effect  is  a  sense  of  ex- 
hilaration followed  by  a  quiet,  dreamy  state  that  causes  the 
worried  man  to  forget  his  troubles,  and  the  sufferer  his  pain. 
Once  this  freedom  from  physical  and  mental  sickness  has  been 
experienced,  the  cocaine  fiend  will  rob  or  kill  to  get  the  drug. 
Enforced  non-use  of  it  will  not  cure  the  victim.  Sentence  him 
to  a  term  of  imprisonment,  and  he  will  go  straight  from  the  jail 
door  to  the  nearest  drug  store  to  secure  cocaine  before  he  eats 
or  sleeps. 


34-8  ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE. 

"  From  an  occasional  use  of  the  drug  to  insatiable  craving  is 
the  rational  course  of  the  cocaine  fiend.  From  thence  to  the 
insane  asylum  and  the  grave  is  a  swift  and  easy  descent. 

"  In  his  fall  from  health  to  physical  and  mental  disintegration, 
the  cocaine  fiend  undergoes  a  terrible  experience.  When  not 
in  the  temporary  heaven  that  the  drug  provides,  the  victim  is  in 
the  lowest  depths  of  an  inferno.  He  suffers  from  insomnia, 
anorexia,  and  gastralgic  pains,  dyspepsia,  chronic  palpitations, 
and  will-paresis.  He  is  a  terror  both  to  himself  and  others. 
The  life  of  the  man  is  a  living  death.  He  knows  it,  and  with 
this  knowledge  staring  him  in  the  face,  he  rushes  for  the  drug, 
and  is  happy  for  a  brief  period  under  its  influence. 

"  It  is  time  something  was  done  to  keep  from  this  high- 
strung  nation  a  drug  so  deadly.  Clear-minded  medical  men 
have  recommended  its  exclusion  from  the  country,  believing 
that  its  use  medicinally  should  be  foregone  rather  than  that  such 
a  cursed  temptation  should  be  placed  in  the  way  of  weak  hu- 
manity. 

"  What  the  real  action  of  the  drug  is,  and  how  to  counteract 
its  influence,  are  at  present  puzzling  questions  to  the  medical 
fraternity.  A  leading  member  of  the  profession  to  whom  these 
questions  were  put  replied  after  careful  consideration  as  follows  : 
*  Its  physiological  action  is  practically  unknown.  As  an  anal- 
gesic, it  is  uniform  in  its  action,  and  this  is  due  to  the  suspen- 
sion of  the  physiological  functions  of  the  sensory  cells  which  it 
•comes  in  contact  with.  Beyond  this,  it  is  an  excitant  of  the 
cerebro-spinal  axis,  later  it  has  a  peculiar  action  on  the  encepha- 
lon,  manifest  in  a  wide  range  of  psychical  phenomena.  Beyond 
this  a  great  variety  of  widely  variable  symptoms  appear.  In 
some  cases  all  the  intellectual  faculties  are  excited  to  the  high- 
est degree.  In  others  a  profound  lowering  of  the  senses  and 
functional  activities  occur.  Morphine-takers  can  use  large 
quantities  of  cocaine  without  any  bad  symptoms.  Alcoholics 
are  also  able  to  bear  large  doses.  Not  unfrequently  the  excite- 
ment caused   by  cocaine   goes  on   to  convulsions,  and    death. 


ALCOHOL   AS   A   MEDICINE.  349 

Sometimes  its  action  is  localized  to  one  part  of  the  cerebro- 
spinal axis,  and  then  to  another.  In  some  cases  well-marked 
cerebral  anaemi'a  appears,  and  for  a  time  is  alarming,  but  soon 
passes  away. 

"  Small  doses  frequently  given  are  more  readily  absorbed 
than  large  doses.  Habitues  always  use  weak  solutions,  the 
effects  being  more  pleasing  with  less  excitation.  Morphine  and 
alcoholic  inebriates  very  soon  acquire  certain  tolerance  to  large 
doses  taken  at  once.  The  cocaine  user  takes  large  quantities, 
but  in  small  doses  frequently  repeated.  He  becomes  fright- 
ened at  the  effects  of  large  doses,  and  when  he  cannot  get  the 
effects  from  small  (to  him  safe)  doses,  he  resorts  to  alcohol, 
morphine,  or  chloral.  In  many  cases  memories  of  the  delusions 
and  hallucinations  are  so  vivid  and  distressing  that  other  nar- 
cotics are  used  to  prevent  their  recurrence.  In  other  cases  the 
recollection  is  very  confused  and  vague,  and  strong  suspicions 
fill  the  mind  that  the  real  condition  is  grossly  exaggerated  by 
the  friends  for  some  deterring  effect.  In  common  with  opium 
and  alcoholics,  there  is  moral  paralysis,  untruthfulness,  and  low 
cunning  in  order  to  conceal  and  explain  the  condition  by  other 
than  the  real  causes." 

Hoffman  Drops  are  used  considerably  as  a  heart 
stimulant.  They  are  much  more  intoxicating  than 
whisky,  and,  used  as  a  beverage,  make  the  drinker 
crazy  while  under  their  influence.  According  to 
Dr.  F.  E.  Jones,  of  Mass.  Board  of  Health,  they 
consist  of  325  parts  ether,  650  parts  alcohol,  and  25 
parts  ether  oil.  They  are  said  to  have  a  very  bad 
effect  upon  the  kidneys. 

The  Banner  of  Gold  for  Oct.,  1898,  contained  a 
lengthy  article  upon  the  dangers  of  drugging,  from 
which  an  extract  is  given  here  : — 

"  Philanthropists,  when  trying  to  stay  the  hand   of  rum,  do 


35 O  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

not  overlook  the  victims  of  drugs.  If  you  will  go,  under  the 
protecting  aegis  of  an  officer,  to  an  opium  den,  such  as  are  to 
be  found  in  every  large  city,  and  as  a  visitor  view  for  yourself 
the  degradation  of  hopeless  opium  users,  then  train  your 
batteries  towards  removal  of  the  cause.  Do  not  depend  upon 
preaching,  or  the  writing  of  essays,  or  the  delivery  of  an  address 
before  some  society  whose  mission  ends  in  telling  others  what 
to  do,  but  put  on  the  armor  of  earnestness,  go  into  the  nurs- 
ery, and  demand  of  the  mother  to  know  why,  when  little  lumps 
of  human  clay  are  placed  in  her  keeping  for  the  sacred  purpose 
of  moulding  them  into  men  and  women,  she  deliberately  feeds 
the  prattling  babe  with  soothing  syrups,  sleeping  drops,  pare- 
goric, and  opiates  in  various  other  forms,  rather  than  with  the 
healthful  food,  and  simple  remedies,  that  nature  only  requires. 
With  such  commercial  nostrums  the  thoughtless  mother  too 
often  paves  the  way  for  her  offspring  to  a  life  of  toxic-slavery 
by  creating  a  systemic  condition,  wThich,  in  maturer  years, 
develops  an  abnormal  craving,  or  appetite,  for  narcotics  and 
stimulants.  Follow  this  little  victim  of  nursery  malpractice 
through  the  imitative  age,  and  you  will  discover  in  him  the  ' 
cigarette  smoker,  the  tippler,  the  self-abased  youth,  and  later, 
the  man  whose  life  is  shadowed  with  the  curse  of  baneful 
appetite. 

"  Ask  the  druggist,  and  the  saloon  keeper,  why  they  dispense 
deadly  poisons  so  freely  to  old  and  young,  and  they  will  tell  you 
the  law  permits  it ;  a  sad  commentary  ! 

"  Converted  men  relapse  into  evil  ways  through  coquet- 
ting with  sin ;  and  cured  inebriates  relapse  to  drink,  and  drugs, 
through  the  use  of  proprietary  medicines,  with  which  the  domes- 
tic market  is  flooded.  Tonics,  compounds,  nerve  remedies,  bit- 
ters, vitalizers,  appetizers,  balsams,  pectorals  and  kindred  nos- 
trums contain,  with  few  exceptions,  from  7  to  50  per  cent,  of  al- 
cohol, or  opium  in  varying  quantities,  each  preponderating  in  kind, 
as  the  effect  is  designed  to  be  stimulating,  or  sedative.  The  ac- 
tive principle  of  some  of  the  best  known  catarrh  remedies  is  co- 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  351 

caine,  and  a  few  manufacturers  are  honest  enough  to  so  announce 
on  the  labels  covering  their  goods ;  more  do  not,  and  leave  the 
victims  to  discover  the  truth  after  they  have  paid  the  penalty  of 
ignorance,  and  developed  the  cocaine  habit.  Wholesale  legisla- 
tion, as  well  as  vigorous  education,  is  needed  along  these  lines,, 
and  while  considering  means  of  betterment,  the  reputable  citi- 
zen, the  clergyman,  and  others  of  good  moral  repute,  whose 
names  are  so  generally  used  to  herald  the  efficacy  of  so-called  re- 
medial inventions,  should  not  be  overlooked  for  ethical  attention. 

"  For  the  information  of  those  of  our  readers,  who  are  not  fa- 
miliar with  the  nature  and  use  of  toxic  drugs,  we  here  refer 
briefly  to  the  prominent  characteristics  of  a  few  most  danger- 
ously potent  for  evil,  and  seductive  in  kind. 

opium  and  morphine  : — "  Gum  opium,  the  dried  milky  exu- 
date from  the  green  capsules  of  the  white  poppy,  and  its  product 
— morphine — are  the  most  reliable  drugs  known  for  the  relief 
of  pain.  The  dose  of  gum  opium  in  medicine  is  from  £  to  I 
grain.  It  contains  from  8  to  14  per  cent,  of  morphine,  which 
is  its  principal  alkaloid.  Opium  is  a  much  more  stable,  and 
stronger,  sedative  than  morphine.  The  cumulative  effect  of 
repeated  medicinal  doses  is  frequently  observed,  and  is  followed 
by  dangerous  symptoms.  It  is  both  a  sedative  and  hypnotic, 
and,  if  given  in  large  doses,  quiets  the  brain,  and  excites  the 
spinal  cord.  Small  doses  have  little  perceptible  effect  upon  the 
circulation,  but,  under  the  influence  of  large  doses,  the  pulse  is 
retarded,  and  the  respiration  becomes  fuller,  deeper,  and  slower. 
In  poisonous  doses  the  pulse  may  become  rapid,  and  great  de- 
pression follow,  the  respiratory  centres  are  paralyzed,  thus  caus- 
ing death.  If  taken  in  from  2  to  4  grain  doses  it  produces  deep 
comatose  sleep,  full  breathing,  full  pulse,  dry  skin,  and  con- 
tracted pupils.  If  the  dose  is  sufficiently  large,  the  sleep  will  be 
more  profound,  the  patient  can  hardly  be  roused,  and  if  awak- 
ened quickly,  he  sinks  back  into  slumber.  The  face  may  be 
swollen,  and  reddened,  and  the  lips  deeply  tinged  with  blue.  At 
this   stage   the  breathing    may   be  characterized   as     puffing. 


352  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

Respiration  may  be  from  8  to  10  per  minute,  perhaps  be  reduced 
to  4,  2  or  i,  and  as  the  toxic  effect  is  more  marked,  it  becomes 
shallow,  the  pupils  are  contracted,  and  the  patient  is  so 
thoroughly  narcotized  that  nothing  will  arouse  him,  the  heart 
ceases  to  beat,  and  he  dies  by  respiratory  failure,  or  paralysis  of 
the  pneumogastric  nerve. 

u  Morphine,  extracted  from  gum  opium  by  a  slow  and  expen- 
sive process,  is  used  much  less  in  proprietary  medicines  than 
is  tincture  of  opium,  which  is  more  easily  manufactured. 

"  A  medicinal  dose  of  sulphate  of  morphine  is  from  £  to  \  of 
a  grain.  One  grain  is  a  dangerous  dose,  and  2  grains  are 
liable  to  prove  fatal.  Morphine  is  a  true  narcotic.  It  is  a  seda- 
tive, lessens  tissue  change,  and  weakens  every  function  of  the 
body. 

tincture  of  opium,  or  laudanum  :— "  Laudanum,  or  the 
tincture  of  opium,  is  a  mixture  of  gum  opium  with  alcohol  and 
water,  the  solution  consisting  of  equal  parts  of  alcohol  and 
water.  Each  ounce  contains  5J  grains  of  powdered  gum 
opium  and  half  an  ounce  of  alcohol,  and  is  equal  in  alcoholic 
strength  to  one  ounce  of  strong  whisky.  The  ordinary  medical 
dose  is  from  12  to  15  minims,  or  from  25  to  30  drops.  It  is 
much  used  as  a  domestic  remedy  for  pain  from  any  cause,  such 
as  ear  or  toothache,  indigestion,  insomnia,  summer  complaints 
with  children  or  adults,  and  is  often  used  in  poultices  over  pain- 
ful sores  or  swellings.  It  is  also  used  in  many  medicines  for 
throat  and  lung  troubles,  in  nearly  all  medicines  for  painful 
chronic  diseases,  and  in  many  of  the  well  advertised  spring 
tonics,  as  well  as  in  nearly  all  the  compounds  that  are  offered 
for  sale  for  blood  troubles,  or  as  alteratives.  The  opium  in 
laudanum  acts  the  same  as  morphine,  or  any  other  of  the  thirty 
preparations  of  opium,  officially  recognized  by  the  medical 
profession. 

paregoric  : — "  Paregoric  of  standard  grade  is  half  alcohol, 
which  is  as  strong  of  alcohol  as  high  proof  whisky.  It  contains 
a  little  opium,  some  benzoic  acid,  oil  of  anise,  and  camphor.  The 
dose  is  from  1 5  to  60  drops. 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  353 

cocaine  : — "  Cocaine  is  an  alkaloid  of  coca  leaves,  and  is  used 
in  medicine  in  the  form  of  hydro-chlorate.  It  is  used  locally  in 
powder  or  solution  to  relieve  pain.  It  is  a  strong  local  anaes- 
thetic. The  ordinary  dose  when  used  as  medicine  is  from  \  to 
|  grain,  and  is  very  unstable  and  treacherous  in  its  effects. 
Some  patients  will  tolerate  large  doses  while  in  others  small 
doses  produce  unpleasant  effects.  Deaths  are  recorded  from 
the  use  of  1-7  to  i  grain. 

chloroform  : — "  Chloroform  is  an  anaesthetic,  and  death  is 
often  caused  by  a  few  inhalations.  The  dose  internally  is  from 
3  to  20  minims.  It  is  not  much  used  in  medicine,  except  to 
control  pain,  and  produce  sleep.  It  is  inhaled  to  produce  mild 
slumber,  or  complete  insensibility  in  surgical  operations.  Death 
may  come  suddenly,  and  without  warning,  at  any  time  during  its 
administration. 

CHLORAL  : — "  Chloral,  or  hydrate  of  chloral,  is  an  hypnotic.  It 
is  of  but  little  value  in  medicine,  except  to  control  nervousness, 
and  produce  sleep.  The  dose  is  from  15  to  30  grains.  It 
should  be  administered  with  caution,  and  only  by  the  physician. 
It  is  made  by  passing  chlorine  gas  through  pure  alcohol,  and 
gets  its  name  from  the  first  syllables  of  the  two  words,  chlorine 
and  alcohol.  It  produces  death  by  inhibition  of  the  heart's 
action,  and  by  paralyzing  the  pneumogastric  nerve. 

BROMIDIA  : — "  Bromidia  is  the  trademark  of  an  hypnotic,  the 
manufacturers  of  which  give  out  to  the  public  that  each  fluid 
drachm  contains  15  grains  of  chloral  hydrate,  or  1  ounce  to 
every  4  ounces  of  bromidia. 

SULPHONAL  : — "  Sulphonal  is  a  coal  tar  preparation,-  and  is 
valuable  in  medicine  as  an  hypnotic  only.  An  ordinary  dose  to 
produce  sleep  is  from  10  to  40  grains.  If  it  is  given  in  these 
doses  for  several  days  in  succession  it  produces  great  weariness, 
an  unsteady  gait,  and  may  involve  paralysis  of  the  lower  limbs, 
with  great  disturbance  of  digestion,  and  scanty  secretion  of  urine 
of  about  the  color  of  port  wine.     There   are  a  number  of  cases 


354  ALCOHOL   AS   A   MEDICINE. 

of  death  reported  as  resulting  from  acute,  or  chronic  poisoning, 
by  sulphonal. 

phenacetine  :— "  Phenacetine  is  a  product  of  coal  tar,  and  an 
antipyretic,  a  drug  that  lessens  the  temperature  in  high  fevers, 
and  rapidly  disintegrates  the  blood. 

antifebrin  : — "  Antifebrin,  another  of  the  coal  tar  prepara- 
tions, is  the  registered  name  for  acetanelid.  Its  effects  are  very 
similar  to  the  effects  of  phenacetine,  and  it  is  used  in  fevers  for 
lessening  the  temperature,  and  for  neuralgic  pains.  The  medic- 
inal dose  is  from  3  to  10  grains.  Unpleasant  effects  follow  its 
continued  use,  such  as  great  exhaustion,  blueness  of  the  lips, 
and  a  slow,  labored  pulse. 

headache  remedies  :— "  The  indiscriminate  use  of  the 
many  coal  tar  products  and  other  hypnotics,  such  as  sulphonal, 
phenacetine,  antifebrin,  chloral,  bromidia,  etc.,  under  the  guise 
of  headache  remedies  is  productive  of  much  disaster,  all  being 
nerve  paralyzants." 

The  public  owe  a  debt  of  gratitude  to  those 
physicians,  and  chemists,  who  give  freely  such  valu- 
able information  as  to  the  real  nature  and  effects  of 
dangerous  drugs.  While  it  is  true  that  the  popular 
belief  in  drugging  is  due  to  professional  practice, 
yet  it  is  also  true  that  what  the  people  know  of  the 
preservation  of  health,  and  of  the  danger  of  alcohol 
and  other  drugs  is  largely  owing  to  the  medical  pro- 
fession. There  is  as  much  difference  among  the 
members  of  the  medical  profession  as  there  is 
among  the  members  of  any  profession  ;  some  are 
careless,  selfish,  unprincipled,  unobservant  of  the  ef- 
fects of  various  medicines  ;  while  others  are  anxious 
to  teach  the  people  how  to  avoid  sickness,  and  gain 
strength.     It  is  the  latter  class  who  warn  against 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  355 

the  self  prescription  of  drugs,  especially  those  of  the 
dangerously  seductive,  narcotic  class. 

Yet,  with  all  the  warnings,  few  pay  heed.  Even 
highly  educated,  intelligent  people  seem  possessed 
of  a  blind  faith  in  the  power  of  drugs.  Every  little 
ache  or  pain  must  have  its  sedative,  be  the  future 
penalty  what  it  may. 

Were  people  to  quit  drugging  themselves,  avoid 
indigestible  viands,  eat  at  regular  hours,  chew  well, 
stop  eating  when  they  have  had  enough,  take  a  suf- 
ficiency of  exercise,  sleep  and  fresh  air,  with  a  hot 
bath  once  a  week,  and  a  cold  "  towel  bath  "  each 
morning,  laying  aside  all  alcoholic  beverages,  tea 
and  coffee,  and  tobacco,  there  would  be  very  little 
sickness  in  the  world.  Over-eating  leads  to  the  drug 
habit  for  relief  from  uneasy  sensations,  so  does  im- 
proper food,  or  poorly  cooked  food. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  it  is  not  possible 
to  violate  the  laws  which  relate  to  the  physical  well- 
being,  and  then  escape  the  natural  penalty  of 
transgression  by  swallowing  a  few  doses  of  medicine. 
Remedies  may  postpone  the  results  of  physical 
transgression,  and  may  even  seem  to  prevent  them 
altogether,  but  careful  observation  will  show  that 
the  escape  from  punishment  is  only  apparent. 
Sometimes  a  parent  escapes,  while  his  child  pays 
the  penalty  of  his  transgression,  in  a  weakly  nervous 
system,  which  may  lead  to  insanity,  or  other 
trouble. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

TESTIMONIES   OF  PHYSICIANS  AGAINST  ALCOHOLIC 
MEDICATION. 

"  In  abandoning  the  use  of  alcohol  it  should  be  clearly  under- 
stood that  we  abandon  an  injurious  influence,  and  escape  from 
a  source  of  disease,  as  we  do  when  we  get  into  a  purer  atmos- 
phere. There  is  not  the  slightest  occasion  to  do  anything,  or 
to  take  anything  to  make  up  for  the  loss  of  a  strengthening  or 
sitpfiortitig  agent.  No  loss  has  been  incurred  save  the  loss  of 
a  cause  of  disease  and  death/' — Dr.  J.  J.  Ridge,  of  London 
Temperance  Hospital. 

Sir.  B.  W.  Richardson,  M.  D.,  said  of  the  London 
Temperance  Hospital: — 

"  No  alcohol  is  administered,  and  no  substitute  for  it.  Any 
drug  with  similar  action  would  be  bad  ;  warmth  and  suitable 
nourishment  are  relied  on  to  keep  up  the  system.  We  know 
that  people  who  take  alcohol  often  feel  better  ;  this  is  from  the 
narcotic  action.  The  pain  may  be  stilled,  and  the  disease  for- 
gotten, but  it  has  not  been  removed  ;  its  symptom  has  been 
narcotized." 

Another  writer  says  : — 

"  I  am   asked  for  a  substitute  for  brandy,  and  frankly  and 
gladly  I  tell  you  there  is  no  substitute,  for  I  have  no  knowledge 
of  any  agent  equally  pleasing  to  the  palate,  and  yet  so  destruc- 
tive of  life." 
356 


ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE.  357 

Dr.  Norman  Kerr,  President  of  the  Society  for 
the  Study  of  Inebriety,  England,  says  : — 

'*  My  own  experience  of  thirty-four  years  in  the  practice  of 
mv  profession  has  taught  me  that  in  nearly  all  cases  and  kinds  of 
disease  the  medical  use  of  alcohol  is  unnecessary,  and  in  a  large 
number  of  instances  is  prejudicial  and  even  dangerous.  Hav- 
ing niven  an  intoxicant,  in  strictly  definite  and  guarded  doses, 
probably  on  the  whole  only  about  once  in  3,000  cases  (then 
usually  when  nothing  else  was  available  in  an  emergency),  and 
having  had  most  varieties  of  disease  to  contend  with,  my  death- 
rate  and  duration  of  illness  have  been  quite  as  low  as  my  neigh- 
bors. The  experience  of  the  London  Temperance  Hospital  and 
other  similar  institutions,  the  current  reports  of  that  hospital 
being  now  reliable  scientific  records,  amply  support  this  ex- 
perience. 

"  The  chief  peril  of  narcotic  drugs  has  always  appeared  to 
me  to  lie  in  their  disguising  the  real  state  of  the  patient  from 
himself  as  well  as  from  his  doctor  and  his  friends.  If  there  is 
any  serious  ailment,  such  as  cholera  or  fever,  the  sufferer  may- 
seem  to  be  and  may  feel  better.  He  is  not  better.  He  is 
actually  worse — made  worse  by  the  alcohol,  and  not  unseldom, 
after  the  evanescent  alcoholic  disguise  and  deceptive  improve- 
ment has  faded,  it  is  found  that  the  malady  itself  has  been  pro- 
gressing, unseen  and  unsuspected  from  the  delusive  aspect  of 
the  alcohol,  steadily  toward  a  fatal  termination,  which  might,  in 
many  cases,  have  been  averted  but  for  the  true  state  of  the  pa- 
tient having  been  completely  masked. 

"^Wherever  the  blame  really  has  lain,  one  thing  is  now  clear, 
that  alcoholic  intoxicants  are  very  rarely  useful  as  a  medicine ; 
are  at  the  best  dangerous  remedies ;  and  that,  other  things  being 
equal,  the  less  they  are  resorted  to  the  better  for  the  chances 
of  the  patient's  recovery,  the  better  for  body  and  brain,  the  bet- 
ter for  physical,  intellectual  and  moral  well-being.  Alcohol 
does  not  nourish,  but  pulls  down ;  does  not  stimulate,  but  de- 


358  ALCOHOL   AS   A   MEDICINE. 

presses  ;  does  not  strengthen,  but  excites  and  exhausts.  Alco- 
hol is  the  pathological  fraud  of  frauds,  degenerating  while  it 
claims  to  be  reconstructing,  enfeebling  while  it  appears  to  be 
invigorating,  destroying  vitality  while  it  professes  to  infuse  new 
life." 

A  medical  writer  in  the  Toledo,  O.,  Blade  holds 
up  in  clear  light  the  relation  of  the  materia  medica  * 
and  alcohol,  and  the  opportunity  of  the  physician  to 
become  a  benefactor,  and  active  temperance  worker. 
His  remarks  follow  : — 

"  One  of  the  signs  of  the  times  in  the  temperance  movement 
is  the  steady  growth  among  physicians  of  a  sentiment  against 
the  administration  of  liquor  of  any  kind  as  a  medicine.  The 
accepted  scientific  view  of  alcohol  is  that  it  is  a  poison,  and  its 
administration  should  be  as  guarded  as  that  of  any  other 
poison  used  as  a  medicine.  Perhaps  the  hardest  thing  a 
physician  finds  in  his  effort  to  restore  his  patients  to  health 
without  the  use  of  liquors  is  the  common,  but  erroneous,  belief 
that  they  are  '  strengthening,'  and  that  the  convalescent,  by 
their  use,  reaches  recovery  more  quickly.  The  error  is  in  sup- 
posing that  any  alcoholic  liquor  is  nourishing,  or  strengthening. 
They  are  neither.  Alcohol  does  not  nourish,  but  it  pulls 
down  ;  it  does  not  strengthen,  but  excites  and  exhausts,  for 
every  stimulation  is  necessarily  followed  by  a  period  of  de- 
pression, and  this  is  inevitably  unfavorable  to  the  patient. 

"  There  is  a  grave  responsibility  resting  on  the  physician 
who  prescribes  alcoholic  liquor.  It  may  arouse  in  a  suscepti- 
ble patient  a  dormant,  inherited  tendency  to  drink.  He  may, 
by  authorizing  its  use  during  the  period  of  convalescence,  fix  a 
habit  upon  a  patient  of  feeble  will,  which  the  latter  will  never  be 
able  to  shake  off.  No  physician  who  realizes  this  great  moral 
responsibility  will  be  willing  to  accept  it  habitually.  He  cer- 
tainly knows  that  the  best  medical  authorities  agree  that 
alcoholic  intoxicants  are  rarely  useful  as  a  medicine ;  that  at 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  359 

best  they  are  dangerous  remedies,  and  that  the  less  they  are 
resorted  to,  the  better  for  both  brain  and  body. 

11  In  point  of  fact  the  physician  who  does  his  duty  to  his 
patient  teaches  him  the  error  of  the  prevalent  belief  in  the 
virtues  of  liquor  in  restoring  the  sick  to  health.  He  becomes 
an  active  temperance  worker  in  effect.  And  he  can  do  a 
noble  and  useful  work  in  the  rescue  of  those  who  are  under 
the  control  of  the  drink  habit.     ***** 

"  Furthermore,  every  physician  owes  it  to  his  profession  to 
teach  his  patients  the  utter  fallacy  of  the  common  belief  that 
alcohol  is  an  article  of  food  value.  It  has  no  such  value. 
The  use  of  intoxicants  in  any  quantity  whatever,  or  at  any 
time,  is  entirely  useless  and  unnecessary.  The  continued  use 
of  them  gradually  induces  structural  degradations  and  func- 
tional derangements  of  the  great  bodily  organs,  thus  leading 
to  the  gravest  physical  disorders." 

"  I  have  demonstrated  by  actual  experience  that  no  form  of 
alcoholic  drink  is  necessary,  or  desirable,  for  internal  use,  either 
in  health,  or  any  of  the  varied  forms  of  disease  ;  but  that  health 
can  be  better  preserved,  and  disease  more  successfully  treated, 
without  the  use  of  such  drinks.*  *  *  *  *  Simple  truth  compels 
me  to  say  that  I  have  never  yet  seen  a  case  in  which  the  use  of 
alcoholic  drinks  either  increased  the  force  of  the  heart's  action, 
or  strengthened  the  patient.  But  I  could  detail  very  many 
cases  in  which  the  administration  of  alcoholics  was  quieting  the 
patient's  restlessness,  enfeebling  the  capillary  circulation,  and 
steadily  favoring  increased  engorgement  of  the  lungs  and  other 
internal  viscera,  and  thereby  hastening  a  fatal  result,  where 
both  attending  physician  and  friends  thought  they  were  the 
only  agents  that  were  keeping  the  patient  alive. 

"  I  have  found  no  case  of  disease  and  no  emergency  arising 
from  accident,  that  I  could  not  treat  more  successfully  without 
any  form  of  fermented  or  distilled  liquors  than  with.  It  is  easy 
to  see  that  the  anaesthetic  properties  of  alcohol  can  be  made 
available  by  an  intelligent  and  skillful  physician  to  meet  a  very 


360  ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE. 

limited  number  of  indications  in  the  treatment  of  some  cases 
that  will  come  before  him.  But  the  same  intelligence  and  skill 
will  enable  him  to  select  other  remedies  capable  of  meeting  the 
same  indications  more  perfectly,  and,  with  less  tendency  to 
secondary  bad  effects.  I  have  no  hesitation,  therefore,  in  stat- 
ing that  for  the  attainment  of  the  highest  degree  of  success  in 
the  management  of  all  forms  of  disease,  whether  acute  or 
chronic,  we  need  no  form  of  fermented,  or  distilled,  alcoholic 
drinks.  And  whoever  will  boldly  make  the  trial,  will  find  that 
his  patients,  of  every  kind,  will  make  better  progress,  on  good 
air  and  simple  nourishment,  without  any  admixture  of  alcoholic 
liquids,  than  they  will  with  such  addition.  In  other  words  he 
will  find  that  the  supposed  benefits  of  this  class  of  agents  in 
medicine,  are  as  illusory  as  they  are  in  general  society,  and  that 
the  words  of  the  wise  man  are  worthy  of  careful  consideration 
when  he  says :  «  Wine  is  a  mocker  and  strong  drink  is  raging, 
and  whosoever  is  deceived  thereby  is  not  wise.'  "—Dr.  N.  S. 
Davis,  Chicago,  111. 

"  Dr.  Hirschfield,  a  well-known  physician  of  Magdeburg, 
Germany,  was  recently  arrested  on  a  charge  of  malpractice. 
The  specific  charge  was  that  he  had  refused  to  give  alcohol  to 
one  of  his  patients  who  was  supposed  to  need  it.  The  doctor, 
like  the  more  advanced  German  physicians,  is  discarding  liquor 
from  his  practice,  and  made  such  a  hot  defence  to  the  charge 
that  the  court  not  only  discharged  the  physician,  but  assessed 
the  cost  of  the  defense  against  the  prosecution."— Bulletin  of 
A.  M.  T.  A. 

Dr.  Greene,  of  Boston,  when  addressing  his  breth- 
ren and  sisters  of  the  medical  association  in  that 
city,  upon  alcohol,  said  in  closing  : — 

"  It  needs  no  argument  to  convince  you  that  it  is  upon  the 
medical  profession,  to  a  very  great  extent,  that  the  rum-seller 
depends  to  maintain  the  respectability  of  the  traffic.  It  re- 
quires  only  your  own  experience,  and  observations,  to  convince  | 


ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE.  361 

you  that  it  is  upon  the  medical  profession,  upon  their  pre- 
scriptions and  recommendations  for  its  use  upon  many  occa- 
sions, that  the  habitual  dram-drinker  depends  for  the  seeming 
respectability  of  his  drinking  habits.  It  is  upon  the  members 
of  the  medical  profession,  and  the  exceptional  laws  which  it  has 
always  demanded,  that  the  whole  liquor  fraternity  depends, 
more  than  upon  anything  else,  to  screen  it  from  opprobium, 
and  just  punishment  for  the  evils  which  the  traffic  entails  upon 
society;  and  it  is  because  the  rum-seller,  and  the  rum-drinker, 
hide  under  this  cloak  of  seeming  respectability  that  they  are  so 
difficult  to  reach  either  by  moral  suasion,  or  by  law.  Physicians 
generally  have  only  to  overcome  the  force  of  habit,  and  the  pre- 
vailing fashion  in  medicine,  to  find  an  excellent  way,  when  they 
will  all  look  back  with  wonder  and  surprise,  that  they,  as  indi- 
viduals, and  members  of  an  honored  profession,  should  have 
been  so  far  compromised." 

"  It  will  be  asked,  Was  there  no  evidence  of  any  good  service 
rendered  by  the  agent  in  the  midst  of  so  much  obvious  bad 
service?  I  answer  to  that  question  THAT  THERE  was  NO 
such  evidence  whatever,  and  is  none." — slr  b.  w. 
Richardson. 

"  A  prominent  general  practitioner  expressed  surprise  that 
any  one  could  do  without  alcohol  in  general  medicine.  He  was 
persuaded  to  make  a  trial,  by  abandoning  the  internal  use  of 
spirits  as  medicine.  A  year  afterward  he  wrote  that  his  success 
in  the  treatment  of  disease  had  been  equal  to  that  of  any  year 
in  the  past,  and  that  his  cases  recovered  as  well  without  alcohol 
as  with  it.  In  a  recent  medical  meeting  he  remarked,  '  I 
thought  for  many  years  that  I  could  not  do  without  spirits  as 
medicine.  I  was  mistaken.  I  am  constantly  treating  cases  of 
all  degrees  of  severity  without  alcohol,  and  my  success  is  fully 
equal  to  the  average.'  " — Quarterly  of  A.  M.  T.  A. 

"  Happily,  the  belief  in  alcohol  is  passing  away." — Dr.  C.  R. 
Francis,  late  Professor  of  Medicine,  Calcutta  Medical  College. 


362  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

Dr.  Moor,  the  distinguished  editor  of  the  Pacific 
Record,  says  : — 

"  While  the  use  of  alcohol  is  always  injudicious  and  injurious, 
it  is  particularly  so  in  summer,  when  the  system  is  predisposed 
to  disturbances  of  the  gastro-intestinal  tract. 

"  Alcohol  flushes  the  capillaries  of  the  mucous  membranes 
just  as  it  does  the  capillaries  of  the  skin,  and  where  there  is  al- 
ready a  smouldering  congestion,  it  will  take  but  little  to  light 
the  tire  of  acute  inflammation,  which  will  rage  with  greatly  in- 
creased intensity. 

"  It  is  wiser  to  habitually  avoid  even  the  medicinal  use  of  al- 
cohol, as  there  are  plenty  of  other  stimulants  which  will  give 
the  desired  results  without  entailing  any  disastrous  after  effects." 

"  All  the  pleasant  sensations  of  increased  mental  and  physi- 
cal power,  which  the  use  of  alcohol  produces,  are  deceptive  and 
arise  from  the  paralysis  of  the  judgment  and  the  momentary 
benumbing  of  the  sense  of  fatigue  which  afterwards  returns  so 
imperiously  with  perhaps  even  greater  intensity." — Prof. 
Adolf  Fick,  of  Wurzburg. 

Dr.  Frank  Payne,  vice-president  of  the  London 
Pathological  Society,  says  : — 

"  Alcohol  is  a  functional  and  tissue  poison,  and  there  is  no 
proper  or  necessary  use  for  it  as  a  medicine." 

"  When  I  first  heard  that  there  was  going  to  be  a  total  absti- 
nence hospital,  I  thought  it  would  be  a  complete  failure.  That 
was  because  I  had  been  taught  as  a  student  to  regard  alcohol  as 
absolutely  necessary  in  the  treatment  of  disease.  Nevertheless 
I  was  an  abstainer  myself.  When  I  was  asked  to  join  as  physi- 
cian, I  did  not  consent  without  a  good  deal  of  consideration,  and 
then  only  on  the  understanding  that  if  I  thought  a  person  need- 
ed it,  I  should  be  allowed  to  administer  alcohol.  I  remember 
the  first  case  of  severe  typhoid  fever  I  had.  He  was  hovering 
between  life  and  death,  and  I  was  anxiously  watching  to  see 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  363 

whether  it  would  be  necessary  to  give  alcohol,  but  the  man 
made  a  good  recovery  without  it.  After  watching  many  cases 
to  whom  I  should  have  given  alcohol  if  I  had  been  treating 
them  elsewhere,  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  I  had  been  com- 
pletely deluded.  I  gave  it  at  one  time  to  a  woman  in  the 
Hospital  who  was  in  a  dying  condition,  but  it  did  not  save  her. 
I  do  not  think  I  am  likely  to  administer  alcohol  again.  We 
have  had  progress  and  efficiency  in  the  Hospital.  It  has  been 
like  an  experiment  for  the  profession,  and  our  success  shows 
that  this  giving  of  alcohol  is  certainly  a  matter  for  re-considera- 
tion for  the  medical  profession.  I  believe  that  they  are  mistak- 
en. There  is  no  doubt  that  the  amount  of  alcohol  used  in 
other  hospitals  has  diminished  greatly,  compared  with  what 
was  used  in  the  past.  To  the  outside  public  also  this  Hospital 
is  an  example.  I  believe  that  an  immense  number  of  the  public 
have  been  teetotalers  some  time  in  their  lives,  but  a  great  many 
of  them  have  gone  back  to  the  drink  in  time  of  illness,  be- 
cause they  have  been  advised  to  do  so.  This  Hospital  is  a 
standing  witness  that  disease  and  surgical  injuries  can 
be  treated  without  alcoholic  liquors." — Dr.  J.  J.  Ridge,  of 
London  Temperance  Hospital. 

"  It  is  perfectly  safe  to  predict  that  the  time  is  not  far  distant 
when  it  will  be  as  rare  for  a  physician  to  prescribe  alcohol  as  it 
is  now  for  him  to  prescribe  blood-letting,  and  when  a  healthy 
man  will  no  more  think  of  taking  alcohol,  with  a  view  of  pre- 
»  serving  health,  than  he  would  strychnine  for  the  same  end." — 
1  Dr.  H.  D.  Didama,  Dean  of  the  Medical  College,  Syracuse 
University,  Syracuse,  N.  Y. 

"  In  my  opinion,  based  on  a  large  experience,  the  continuous 
use  of  spirits  as  a  medicine  is  more  dangerous  and  fatal  than 
when  taken  as  a  beverage,  either  continually,  or  at  intervals.  In 
one  case  the  degeneration  from  alcohol  will  intensify  the  diseased 
processes  either  in  accelerating  the  special  form  of  disorder, 
or  provoking  new  conditions,  complicating  normal  physiologi- 
cal activities,  and  weakening  possible  tendencies  to  return   to 


364  ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE. 

health.  When  taken  as  a  beverage  its  effects  are  constantly 
antagonized,  and  the  degeneration  following  is  slower,  and  less 
marked."— Dr.  T.  D.  Crothers,  Hartford,  Conn. 

"  The  benefits  which  have  been  supposed  from  their  liberal  use 
in  medicine,  and  especially  in  those  diseases  which  were  once 
universally,  and  are  still  vulgarly,  supposed  to  depend  upon  mere 
weakness,  have  invested  these  agents  with  attributes  to  which 
they  have  no  claim,  and  hence,  as  we  physicians  no  longer  em- 
ploy them  as  we  were  wont  to  do,  we  ought  not  to  rest  satisfied 
with  the  mere  acknowledgment  of  error,  but  we  ought  also  to 
make  every  retribution  in  our  power  for  having  so  long^ 
upheld  one  of  the  most  fatal  delusions  that  ever  took  posses- 
sion of  the  human  mind." — Dr.  Cheyne,  Dublin. 

"  Brandy  kills  multitudes  every  year  who  enjoyed  perfect 
health  before  they  began  to  use  it ;  then  it  seems  fair  to  infer 
that  it  will  kill  the  sick  more  speedily." — Halls  Journal  of 
Health. 

"  It  does  not  always  follow  that  because  a  patient  has  recov- 
ered after  taking  alcoholic  stimulant,  he  owes  his  recovery  to 
that  stimulant.  Post  hoc  is  not  necessarily  propter  hoc. 
An  old  lady  died  in  London  a  few  years  ago.  The  same 
medical  man  had  attended  her  for  thirty-five  years.  She 
left  him  a  legacy  carefully  packed  in  a  certain  huge  box. 
When  this  box  was  opened  after  her  death,  the  legacy  to 
the  medical  attendant,  to  whom  she  had  expressed  herself  as  so 
indebted  for  his  skillful  advice,  and  excellent  medicine,  which 
had  kept  her  alive  so  long,  was  found  to  consist  of  all  the  bottles 
of  physic  which  he  had  ever  sent  her — unopened  !  I  have 
known  recovery  to  take  place,  and  the  attending  physician  con- 
gratulate himself  on  the  striking  effect  of  the  intoxicant  pre- 
scribed, when  all  the  time  the  patient  had  not  tasted  it." — 
Dr.  Norman  Kerr,  England. 

"  I  became  deeply  impressed  (through  some  cases  that  hap- 
pened in  the  early  part  of  my  professional  life)  with  the  awful 
character  and  extent  of  drunkenness,  and  desired  the  diminu- 


ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE.  365 

tion,  and  if  possible,  the  extinction,  of  that  horrible  and  deadly 
sin.  I  saw  scores,  and  hundreds,  arrested  by  abstinence  in  their 
downward  course,  but  of  these  not  a  few  were  set  moving 
again  toward  the  abyss,  by  medical  advice.  I  thought  I  would 
do  with  as  little  as  possible  of  alcoholic  stimulants  in  the  form 
of  drink,  and  was  thus  led  to  try,  cautiously,  to  do  without 
them  in  cases  in  which  before  they  had  been  administered. 
The  result  of  these  trials  was  very  decidedly  in  favor  of  absti- 
nence ;  and  consequently,  alcoholic  drinks  have  legitimately  dis- 
appeared from  my  list  of  medicines." — Henry  Mudge,  M. 
R.C.  S.,  of  England. 

"  The  use  of  spirits  as  a  stimulant  in  diseases,  except  in  a  very 
limited  circle,  is  a  mere  empiricism  for  which  no  good  reasons 
can  be  given.  The  teachings  of  medical  men  are  no  more  to  be 
followed  blindly,  and  without  question.  The  tests  of  alcohol  as 
a  tonic,  as  a  food,  as  a  stimulant,  as  a  retarder  of  waste,  are  all 
negative.  There  is  no  reliable  evidence  to  support  these  claims, 
but  a  constant  accumulation  of  facts  to  indicate  the  danger  from 
the  use  of  spirits.  To  give  alcohol,  or  any  other  drug,  without 
some  rational  theory  in  accord  with  the  scientific  researches  of 
to-day,  is  unpardonable."-— Dr.  T.  D.  Crothers,  Hartford, 
Conn. 

"  The  promiscuous  plan  of  giving  alcoholics  is  really,  in  a 
large  degree,  the  force  of  habit,  and  has  no  foundation  in  mod- 
ern science,  or  in  good  practice." — Dr.  Ezra  M.  Hunt,  late 
Sec'y  N.  J.  State  Board  of  Health. 

"  Early  in  my  practice,  I  became  convinced  that  the  use  of 
alcoholics  was  in  almost  all  cases  unnecessary,  and  in  most 
cases  attended  with  direct  injury.  During  an  experience  of 
more  than  a  third  of  a  century  in  a  hospital  where  all  the  im- 
portant cases  have  been  under  my  own  immediate  care,  I  have 
no  more  clear  and  definite  conviction  on  any  point  than  this, 
that  the  surgeon  has  no  need  of  alcohol  in  the  treatment  of 
cases,  and  will  have  better  results  without  it." — Dr.  r  \  Kkrr, 
Medical  Missionary  in  Hong  Kong,  China. 


366  ALCOHOL   AS   A   MEDICINE. 

^  "  I  have  no  use  for  alcohol,  either  personally,  or  in  my  prac- 
tice. Yet  I  cannot  say  that  I  have  entirely  ,abolished  it.  Al- 
cohol is  used  in  compounding  most  of  our  tinctures,  but  in  rem- 
edies proper  my  experience  has  been  that  other  stimulants, 
such  as  ammonia,  strychnine,  caffeine,  kolafra,  etc.,  answer  the 
same  purpose  without  alcohol's  dangerous  effects.  '  In  my  prac- 
tice, which  is  confined  to  surgery,  I  find  very,  very  little  use  for 
it.  During  the  past  year,  in  extreme  cases,  I  used  it  in  hypo- 
dermic injections,  and  afterwards  felt  that  ether,  or  ammonia 
would  have  answered  the  same  purpose.  I  think,  in  general 
practice,  physicians  are  dispensing  with  alcohol  more  and  more, 
but  perhaps  unconsciously."— ©.  W.  B.  De  Garmo,  Professor 
of  surgery  in  Post-Graduate  Hospital,  New  York  City. 

"  Medicine,  to-day,  would  be  in  a  more  satisfactory  condition 
if  the  use  of  alcohol  as  a  medicine  had  been  interdicted  a 
hundred  years  ago,  and  the  interdict  had  remained  to  the 
present  day.  The  benefits  derived  from  its  use  are  so  small 
(even  when  they  can  be  proved,  which  is  much  more  rarely  the 
case  than  most  people  imagine),  and  the  advantages  gained  are 
so  slight,  that  they  are  completely  outweighed  when  we  set 
against  them  the  evil  that  has  been  wrought  by  the  abuse  of 
alcohol,  and  that  has  arisen  out  of  the  loose  methods  of  pre- 
scription that  have  obtained,  and  even  still  obtain,  in  regard  to 
this  drug."— Dr.  G.  Sims  Woodhead,  F.  R.  C.  P.,  F.  R.  S., 
Director  of  the  Research  Laboratories  of  the  Royal  College  of 
Physicians  and  Surgeons,  London. 

"  The  effect  of  continually  dosing  with  this  drug  is  too 
apparent  wherever  it  is  used,  benumbing  the  senses,  and  ren- 
dering more  difficult  every  natural  function.  Alcohol  never 
sustains  the  powers  of  life.  It  sometimes  changes  the  symp- 
toms of  disease,  but  at  the  expense  of  the  vitality  of  the  body. 
What  is  called  its  supporting  action,  is  a  fever  induced  by  the 
poison,  which  finally  prostrates  the  patient.  The  secret  of  its 
action  is  found  in  the  laws  of  vitality.     The  man  who  takes 


ALCOHOL   AS  A   MEDICINP:.  367 

alcohol  to  help  digest  his  food,  must  first  throw  off  the  alcohol, 
before  his  stomach  can  act  healthfully. 

"  There  is  one  encouraging  fact  to  be  noted  in  this  connec- 
tion, that  the  use  of  alcohol  in  medicine  has  very  much  dimin- 
ished during  the  past  twenty-five  years,  and  the  present 
tendency  is  constantly  in  that  direction.  Right  here  is  an 
important  point  which  I  wish  to  make  :  When  the  physician 
ceases  to  prescribe  alcohol  as  a  medicine,  the  drink  problem 
will  have  reached  the  final  stage  of  its  solution.  Mankind  will 
eventually  learn  that  safety  lies  not  so  much  in  skillful  doctors, 
or  in  some  wonderful  '  new  remedy,'  as  in  daily  obedience  to 
the  laws  of  health.  A  small  amount  of  prevention  is  of  more 
worth  than  all  the  power  of  cure." — Dr.  C.  H.  Shepard„ 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

14  My  observation  has  been  that  there  is  a  decided  tendency 
among  educated  physicians  to  give  less  alcohol  than  formerly 
in  the  treatment  of  disease.  Of  late  years  I  have  given  but  very 
little  alcohol  in  my  own  practice.  The  tendency  is  due,  in 
my  opinion,  to  the  study  of  the  physiological  action  of  drugs, 
and  to  the  better  understanding  of  the  causation  of  disease  and 
pathological  processes.  Modern  investigators  now  know  that 
we  have  therapeutic  agents  that  meet  the  requirements  of 
disease  processes  with  more  scientific  accuracy  than  is  obtained 
by  the  exhibition  of  alcohol." — Dr.  Donnelly,  Secretary  of 
Minnesota  State  Medical  Society,  St.  Paul,  Minn. 

"  Dr.  Pearce  Gould  recently  made  a  speech  to  the  National 
Temperance  League  on  alcohol  and  the  advantage  of  doing 
without  it,  both  in  health  and  in  the  treatment  of  disease.  It 
takes  a  strong  man  to  say  the  strong  things  which  Mr.  Gould 
said  on  the  subject,  especially  if  he  happens  to  be  a  medical 
man.  No  doubt,  as  Dr.  Gould  says,  the  use  of  alcohol  in 
medical  practice  is  nothing  now  compared  to  what  it  was 
twenty  years  ago,  much  more  forty  years  ago,  when  Dr. 
Todd's  influence,  and  the  reaction  from  the  so-called  antiphlog- 
istic treatment  were  at  their  height.     Public  opinion  has  been 


368  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

enlightened  by  the  evidence  of  leaders  in  medicine,  such  as  Dr. 
Parkes,  Sir  William  Gull,  Dr.  Gairdner,  Dr.  Sanderson,  and 
others,  and  medical  men  have  dared  to  treat  disease  without 
alcohol,  or  with  only  small  quantities  of  it.  There  are  physi- 
cians and  surgeons  of  reputation  and  success,  who  are  so 
strong  in  their  convictions  that  alcohol  is  of  little  use  in  the 
treatment  of  disease,  that  it  destroys  tissues,  lessens  the 
resistance  to  microbes,  deranges  functions,  spoils  temper,  and  ! 
shortens  life,  that  they  are  ready  to  testify  to  this  effect  in 
public,  in  company  with  redoubtable  champions  of  the  temper- 
ance cause  like  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  Sir  William 
White  (chief  constructor  of  the  navy),  and  the  Bishop  of 
Derry,  who  have  as  much  prejudice  to  contend  against  in  their 
spheres  as  the  medical  man  has  in  his.  We  recognize  with 
pleasure  the  good  done  by  such  testimony  as  Dr.  Gould's. 
Men  whose  record  and  authority  in  the  profession  are  such  as 
his  have  the  courage  of  their  opinions,  and  their  honest  testi- 
mony will  be  respected  even  by  those  who  do  not  go  quite  so 
far  in  discarding  alcohol  as  an  element  of  diet,  or  as  a  medicine. 
—  The  Lancet,  London,  May  14,  1898. 

11  Dr.  Usher,  an  eminent  English  physician,  not  strictly  non- 
alcoholic, tells  of  another  physician  who  was  ill  with  typhoid 
fever.  When  called,  Dr.  Usher  learned  it  was  the  nineteenth 
day  of  the  disease.  The  patient  was  in  a  state  of  profound 
coma,  apparently  on  the  brink  of  the  grave.  Retiring  with  the 
physicians  who  had  charge  of  the  case,  Dr.  Usher  expressed  the 
conviction  that  the  coma,  which  apparently  must  end  in  death 
within  twenty-four  hours,  was  not  entirely  due  to  disease,  but 
partly  to  the  brandy  which  had  been  administered,  and  he 
advised  :  *  Were  1  you,  I  would  stop  the  brandy  entirely  and 
give  him  milk  and  warm  tea  in  its  stead,  and  probably  thecoma 
will  disappear.'  The  hint  was  taken  and  acted  upon,  and 
twenty-four  hours  later  the  patient  was  able  to  answer  ques- 
tions quite  coherently.  The  Doctor  adds  :  '  Had  this  man 
died  in  his  comatose  state  instead  of  recovering,  the  severity  of 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  369 

the  disease  would  have  been  alone  blamed  for  it,  and  the 
brandy  would  have  altogether  escaped  censure.'  " — F.  E. 
Willard  Hospital  Leaflet. 

"  For  the  exercise  of  extreme  caution  in  the  administration 
of  alcohol  to  the  sick,  and  its  abandonment  for  the  healthy, 
experience  now  offers  the  greatest  encouragement.  One  of  the 
latest  instances  is  reported  by  a  New  York  newspaper,  of  April 
14,  1898,  as  occurring  in  Cuba.  Dr.  A.  Monas  Lesser,  the 
executive  surgeon  of  the  Red  Cross  Hospital,  who  has  recently 
returned  from  Havana,  where  he  had  been  working  amongst 
the  reconcentrados,  said,  '  We  found  the  condition  of  those  un- 
fortunate people  almost  beyond  description.  In  Los  Fosos 
there  were  between  six  and  seven  hundred  people,  with  a 
death-rate  of  twenty-five  a  day.  Of  our  success  it  is  perhaps 
enough  to  say  that  when  we  left  Havana  six  days  had  elapsed 
without  a  single  death  in  Los  Fosos.  The  results  of  non-alco- 
holic treatment  were  very  markedly  favorable.  As  an  experi- 
ment, and  a  concession  to  the  general  medical  opinion  that 
prescribes  alcohol,  on  our  first  arrival  I  allowed  alcohol  to  be 
given  to  six  patients,  whose  condition  was  such  as,  in  the  judg- 
ment of  most  medical  men,  to  make  the  administration  of 
alcohol  very  desirable.  To  my  very  great  sorrow  four  of  those 
six  died.  Afterwards,  in  treating  absolutely  without  alcohol 
sixty-three  cases  of  those  same  diseases,  of  which  so  many  thou- 
sands have  died,  we  lost  but  one  patient,  who  died  on  the  day 
of  entrance.  In  Cuba,'  remarks  this  newspaper,  'as  every- 
where else  where  Dr.  Lesser's  observation  has  extended,  the 
abstainer,  when  sick,  far  more  readily  receives  benefit  from 
the  medical  treatment,  and  the  more  liquor  a  man  may  drink, 
the  less  his  opportunity  for  recovery.  No  Red  Cross  physicians 
are  sent  into  the  field,  or  will  hereafter  be  sent,  without  the  dis- 
tinct promise  that  they  will  not  use  intoxicants  either  person- 
ally, or  in  their  practice.'  " — Medical  Temperance  Review, 
London. 

Dr.  Sarah  Hackett   Stevenson,  president  of  the 


3/0  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

Frances  Willard  Temperance  Hospital,  Chicago, 
111.,  in  addressing  the  graduates  of  the  training 
school  for  nurses  said  : — 

**  I  had  always  supposed  I  was  a  temperance  woman  ;  I  never 
used  alcohol  myself,  and  I  never  gave  it  except  in  cases  of  dire 
necessity.  I  had  always  been  opposed  to  its  administration  in 
chronic  cases,  but  felt  free  to  use  it  in  acute  cases,  when  the 
patient  was  bordering  on  collapse.  I  have  learned  now,  how- 
ever, how  thoroughly  we  can  meet  exigencies  of  all  kinds  with- 
out the  use  of  alcohol  in  any  form,  and  that  we  have  at  our 
command  remedies  that  are  better.  Thus  I  may  say  to-night, 
I  am  indebted  to  the  Temperance  Hospital  for  a  new  view  of 
therapeutics,  and  in  accepting  a  position  on  the  staff  I  have 
received  fully  as  much  as  I  have  given." 

Dr.  Stevenson  is  one  of  the  most  eminent  among 
the  physicians  in  Chicago. 

"  The  prescribing  of  alcoholics  by  a  physician  can  be  de- 
scribed by  no  weaker  word  than  laziness.  It  does  not  cure,  but 
anaesthetizes.  I  believe  it  to  be  true  that  a  vast  amount  of 
people  use  alcoholics  without  the  advice  of  a  physician,  but  on 
account  of  advertisements  of  some  patent  medicine  quack, 
who  gladly  fills  his  pockets  without  the  dangers  of  a  trip  to  the 
Klondike. 

"  Let  each  in  his  sphere  of  life  spread  the  true  gospel  of  medi- 
cine that  it  is  not  by  alcoholism  in  medicine  that  health  is  ob- 
tained, but  by  living  according  to  those  divine  laws  of  temper- 
ance, purity,  cheerfulness  and  love  that  existed  from  the  be- 
ginning of  time  and  shall  endure  when  time  shall  be  no  more." 
— Dr.  E.  Elmer  Keeler,  Syracuse,  N.  Y. 

"  I  have  learned  this  important  fact — namely,  that  the  best 
class  of  thinkers,  men  of  the  best  intellectual  gauge,  are  those 
who  are  doing  away  with  this  miserable,  unscientific  practice  of 
giving  liquor  ;  and  I  want   to  say  to  you  W.  C.  T.  U.  women 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  371 

that  if  you  unfurl  to  the  breeze  the  flag  of  unconditional,  uncom- 
promising enmity  to  the  use  of  liquor  in  any  form,  or  for  any 
purpose,  you  will  draw  to  your  aid  the  better  class  of  men." — 
Dr.  Boynton,  of  Clifton  Springs,  N.  Y.  Sanitarium. 

"  Philanthropic  men  and  women,  in  this  country  and  abroad, 
have  been  toiling  for  many  years  to  lessen  and  destroy  the 
debasing  drink-habit.  Their  efforts  of  late  have  been  attended 
with  encouraging  results.  Prominent  men  in  Europe  are  giv- 
ing their  valuable  aid  and  support.  More  and  more  members 
of  the  medical  profession  in  America  are  breaking  the  gyves  of 
a  deceptive  experience.  They  will  no  longer  remain  trigs  In 
the  way  of  the  beneficent  attempts  to  overcome  .the  hideous 
evil  which  through  all  the  ages  has  cursed  mankind. 

"  If  the  medical  journals  of  the  country,  instead  of  advertis- 
ing and  commending  medicated  wines,  intoxicating  malt-extracts 
and  well-aged  whiskies,  would  intimate  that  the  non-alcoholic 
treatment  of  diseases  deserves  a  fair  trial,  and  if  their  readers 
would  personally  test  this  treatment,  no  harm,  but  an  immense 
amount  of  good  might  be  the  outcome. 

"  And  can  there  be  a  reasonable  doubt  that  if  but  500  of 
the  most  prominent  leaders  and  teachers  of  the  profession  in 
America,  if  but  50  of  the  authors  of  medical  text-books,  would 
by  earnest  precept  and  faithful  example  oppose  the  use  of  alco- 
hol in  all  forms  as  a  beverage  or  medicine,  the  remainder  of  the 
100,000  doctors  might  be  influenced  to  follow  this  teaching  and 
worthy  practice,  and  thus  give  a  noble  and  lasting  impetus  to 
the  greatest  philanthropic  enterprise  in  the  world?" — Dr. 
H.  D.  Didama,  Syracuse,  N.  Y. 

"  With  regard  to  the  treatment  of  disease  without  alcohol  it 
was  almost  by  accident  that  he  had  hit  on  his  present  position. 
It  was  when  he  was  at  the  Westminster  Hospital  that  he  made 
up  his  mind  to  try  for  himself  the  treatment  of  severe  injuries 
and  surgical  diseases  without  alcohol.  He  had  a  case  of  surgi- 
cal erysipelas  :  eight  ounces  of  brandy  had  been  ordered  as 
usual;  he   knocked  it  all  off.     The  house-surgeon  no   doubt 


372  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

thought  he  was  a  fool,  but  then  house-surgeons  always  did ! 
To  his  delight,  and  the  house-surgeon's  surprise,  the  man  got 
better.  The  next  was  a  case  of  pyasmia  :  again  he  knocked  all 
alcohol  boldly  off  because  he  was  determined  to  see  the  worst ; 
but  the  patient  did  not  die,  he  improved.  That  experience  has 
been  multiplied  since.  He  would  say,  make  the  experiment  for 
yourselves.  There  was  not  the  smallest  doubt  as  to  the  result 
and  the  effect  on  their  own  practice.  Abstainers  were  in  the 
minority  at  present,  but  they  need  not  be  afraid  of  that.  Minor- 
ities become  majorities.  He  met  people  who  were  opposed  to 
him  but  it  was  because  they  had  never  tried  it ;  they  were 
afraid  to  do  so." — From  an  address  by  Dr.  A.  Pearce 
Gould,  Surgeon  to  Middlesex  Hospital,  London,  Eng. 

"  I  found  it  necessary  to  withstand  the  use  of  alcohol  in  med- 
icine at  an  early  period  of  my  practice.  It  lowers  the  functions, 
causes  degeneration  of  the  nerve  centres,  and  produces  general 
paralysis,  trembling  lips,  shaky  hand,  unsteady  walk,  the  mus- 
cles undergo  a  change,  the  heart  becomes  fatty,  the  nerves 
harden  and  thicken  from  neuritis,  the  digestive  organs  become 
morbid,  loathing  food,  and  ulceration  and  thickening  of  the 
walls  of  the  stomach  and  intestinal  tract  result." — Dr.  S. 
Wilks,  Guy's  Hospital,  London. 

14  All  these  facts  are  now  incorporated  into  the  medical  litera- 
ture of  the  last  twenty-five  years,  and  are  accessible  to  every 
intelligent  physician  who  will  take  the  trouble  to  look  for  them. 
I  And  there  are  more  than  a  score  of  eminent  medical  clinicians 
and  teachers  who  have  demonstrated  their  correctness  by  treat- 
ing all  forms  of  disease  more  successfully  without  the  use  of 
any  form  of  alcoholic  liquor  than  with  it.  Consequently  every 
physician  of  the  present  day  who  continues  to  bow  to  the  social 
tyranny  of  alcohol  by  sipping  it  at  the  banqueting  table,  or  to 
prescribe  it  as  a  remedy  for  the  cure  of  disease,  is  making  him- 
self personally  responsible  for  aiding  in  the  maintenance  of  the 
most  gigantic  and  deceptive  evil  that  is  now  contributing  to  the 
misery  and  degeneration  of  the  human  race." — Dr.  N.  S. 
Davis. 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  373 

"  Alcohol  is  much  less  used  in  the  treatment  of  chronic 
maladies  at  the  present  time  than  formerly,  but  many  physicians 
still  cling  to  the  idea  that  it  is  a  stimulant,  a  nutrient,  or  in 
some  way  a  supporter  of  vitality,  and  hence  prescribe  it  in  a 
variety  of  morbid  conditions  which  are  more  or  less  chronic  in 
character.  I  have  demonstrated  to  my  own  satisfaction  the 
absolute  inutility  of  alcohol  for  the  accomplishment  of  any  use- 
ful purpose  in  the  treatment  of  either  chronic  or  acute  mala- 
dies."— Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg,  Battle  Creek,  Mich. 

"  In  England  at  present  the  use  of  large  doses  of  alcohol 
seems  to  have  greatly  gone  out  of  hospital  practice,  and 
opinion  is  certainly  growing,  that  not  even  small  doses  are  re- 
quired. The  treatment  of  disease  in  so-called  '  hydropathic 
establishments '  which  personally  I  have  had  occasion  to  study* 
with  interest,  did  much  to  loosen  any  little  faith  that  I  have  ever 
possessed  in  the  utility  of  alcohol  in  the  treatment  of  any  dis- 
ease, whether  acute  or  chronic.  Diseases  of  the  stomach,  liver 
and  heart  and  kidneys  have  appeared  to  me,  in  my  own  prac- 
tice, to  be  much  more  satisfactorily  treated  without  either  beer^ 
wine  or  spirits.  Delirium  tremens  is  now  more  successfully* 
treated  without  the  poison  which  has  caused  the  disease.  My* 
conclusion,  then,  is  that  personally  I  would  not  consent,  in  my* 
own  case,  to  take  any  form  of  alcohol  when  suffering  from  dis- 
ease. I  always  advise  friends  and  patients  to  do  without  it,  if 
they  have  sufficient  strength  of  mind,  altogether  ;  and  when 
this  is  not  possible,  to  take  as  little  of  that  absurdly  praised 
'  food  for  the  sick,'  as  I  have  heard  it  called,  as  they  will  con- 
sent to."— Dr.  C.  R.  Drysdale,  Consulting  Physician  to  the 
Metropolitan  Hospital,  London,  Eng. 

"  It  has  happened  to  me  to  see  both  sides  of  the  shield.  I 
have  witnessed  day  by  day  the  practice  of  medicine  for  fifty* 
years.  For  twenty-five  years  I  practiced  medicine  with  alcohol 
as  a  remedy,  without  a  break.  I  was  taught  that  it  was  a  food 
as  well  as  a  medicine,  and  I  never  dreamed  of  allowing  a  pa- 
tient not  to  have  it  if  he  or  she  were  in  danger  of  death,  and 


374  ALCOHOL   AS   A   MEDICINE. 

the  remedy  promised  to  be  of  any  service.  For  twenty-five 
years  I  have  practiced  medicine  entirely  without  alcohol.  I 
have  had  to  give  up  much  that  was  instilled  into  me  in  earlier 
days.  I  have  had  even  to  forfeit  friendships  in  carrying  out 
my  views,  and  with  the  two  pictures  before  me,  the  old  and  the 
new,  it  remains  for  me  in  conscience  to  state  that  the  results  I 
have  witnessed  during  the  new  practice  outstrip  those  of  the 
old.  I  hear  friends  still  say  that  they  dare  not  treat  disease  on 
the  new  system  ;  that  it  is  dangerous  and  bad.  My  reply,  in 
all  simplicity,  is  :  '  Do  not  say  that  until  you  have  tried  it ;  you 
have  never  tried  it ;  you  have  always  gone  on  one  system — 
have  rested  ever  upon  it,  and  that  is  the  old  system ;  you  have 
not  had  the  courage  to  test  the  new,  and  there  is  all  the  differ- 
ence between  us.'  "—Sir  B.  W.  Richardson,  London. 

Mr.  Frederick  Treves,  the  well-known  surgeon  of 
the  London  Hospital,  in  his  Manual  of  Operative 
Surgery,  has  some  striking  remarks  on  the  risks  at- 
tending operations  on  the  bodies  of  drunkards. 
He  says: — 

"  A  scarcely  worse  subject  for  an  operation  can  be  found 
than  is  provided  by  the  habitual  drunkard.  The  condition 
contra-indicates  any  but  the  most  necessary  and  urgent  pro- 
cedures, such  as  amputation  for  severe  crush,  herniotomy  and 
the  like.  The  mortality  of  these  operations  among  alcoholics 
is,  it  is  needless  to  say,  enormous.  Many  individuals  who  state 
that  they  '  do  not  drink,'  and  who,  although  perhaps  never 
drunk,  are  yet  always  taking  a  little  stimulant  in  the  form  of 
*  nips,'  and  an  '  occasional  glass,'  are  often  as  bad  subjects  for 
surgical  treatment  as  are  the  acknowledged  drunkards. 

"Of  the  secret  drinkers,"  continues  Mr.  Treves,  "  the  sur- 
geon has  to  be  indeed  aware.  In  his  account  of  the  '  Calami- 
ties of  Surgery,'  Sir  James  Paget  mentions  the  case  of  a  person 
who  was  a  drunkard  on  the  sly,  and  yet  not  so  much  on  the  sly 
but  that  it  was  well  known  to  his  more  intimate  friends.     His 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  375 

habits  were  not  asked  after,  and  one  of  his  fingers  was  removed 
because  joint  disease  had  spoiled  it.  He  died  in  a  week  or  ten 
days  with  spreading  cellular  inflammation,  such  as  was  far 
from  unlikely  to  occur  in  an  habitual  drunkard.  Even  absti- 
nence from  alcohol  for  a  week  or  two  before  an  operation  does 
not  seem  to  greatly  modify  the  result." — Bulletin  of  A.  M.  T.  A. 

"  Although  it  is  still  very  common  to  use  alcohol  as  a  reme- 
dial agent,  so  that  a  preponderating  number  of  doctors  still 
employ  it  on  a  large  scale,  yet,  according  to  what  scientific  re- 
searches into  the  physiological  value  of  alcohol  have  shown, 
there  is  not  the  least  doubt  that  this  prescription  of  alcohol  is 
only  a  survival  of  old  times  and  their  misunderstandings,  and 
that  it  will  one  day  in  the  future  completely  disappear. 

"  While  it  was  still  believed  that  alcohol  was  both  strengthen- 
ing, nourishing  and  warming,  and  therefore  that  it  supplied 
force  to  the  organism,  it  was  natural  that  it  should  also  be  ap- 
plied as  a  remedial  agent.  But  when  science  showed  that  all 
this  was  illusory,  there  was  left  only  the  so-called  stimulant 
effect.  Now  as  this  is  probably  always  dependent  on  its  poison- 
ous (paralyzing)  operation  on  the  nervous  system,  and  as  we 
possess  other  remedies,  which,  while  they  are  powerful  stimu- 
lants (i.  e.,  excite  the  organism  to  use  up  its  reserve  supply  of 
force)  without  having  alcohol's  dangerously  seductive  qualities, 
there  is  no  reason  for  retaining  this  remedy.  Even  its  paralyz- 
ing power,  which  might  be  supposed  to  find  a  fit  sphere  of 
action  in  circumstances  of  spasm,  can  be  dispensed  with,  and 
alcohol  can  even  in  these  cases  be  easily  replaced  by  far  better 
remedies. 

"  That  it  is,  nevertheless,  warmly  recommended  by  so  many 
doctors  of  highly  respected  names,  is  the  less  significant,  since 
these  doctors  have  not  sought  to  gain  any  experience  how  the 
maladies  run  their  course  without  being  treated  with  alcohol ; 
and  as  far  as  is  known,  all  doctors  who  have  thoroughly  tried 
both  methods  have  expressed  themselves  decidedly  in  favor  of 
treating  patients  without  alcohol." — Danish  School  Physiology. 


3?6  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

During  the  summer  of  1894,  a  claim  was  made 
that  alcohol  is  necessary  as  a  solvent  for  medi- 
cines and  to  "prepare  the  field  of  operations  in  cap- 
ital surgical  cases."  A  letter  was  authorized  by  the 
Board  of  Trustees  of  the  National  Temperance 
Hospital,  and  addressed  to  a  number  of  surgeons 
and  physicians  of  high  repute  in  the  city  of  Chicago, 
asking  whether  they  considered  it  necessary  for 
such  use,  and  what  they  employed  as  antiseptics. 
The  following  are  culled  from  replies  received  : — 

Dr.  S. — Prepares  medicine  without  alcohol ;  does  not  use  it 
as  a  preserving  agent,  having  found  it  not  necessary. 

L^r.  E. — Is  unalterably  opposed  to  the  use  of  alcohol ;  can 
cover  the  field  pretty  well  without  it. 

Dr.  B. — Sees  no  great  need  of  alcohol  in  surgery. 

Dr.  M. — "  I  never  use  any  of  the  preparations  of  alcohol  as 
an  antiseptic  ;  rarely  ever  prescribe  a  tincture  ;  the  tablet  form 
is  much  more  valuable  and  certain." 

Dr.  S. — Does  not  consider  it  indispensable.  Has  found  it 
possible  to  have  medicines  properly  compounded  without  it. 

Dr.  W. — (Pharmacist)  "  Should  a  physician  choose  to  prac- 
tice medicine  without  alcoholic  preparations,  I  do  not  think  the 
task  so  very  great  if  the  question  is  given  a  little  study." 

Dr.  T.— Does  not  use  alcohol.  "  The  patient  cannot  possibly 
get  any  medicinal  effect  from  alcohol." 

Dr.  Sarah  Hackett  Stevenson,  President  of  Hospital  Staff, 
sayS  : — «  1  do  not  think  it  necessary  to  use  alcohol.  Tablet 
triturates  are  better  than  tinctures." — Hospital  Leaflet. 

Dr.  Lawson  Tait,  a  famous  surgeon  of  Birming- 
ham,  England,  was  asked  by   Dr.   J.    H.    Kellogg, 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  2>77 

when  serving  as  his  assistant  some  years  ago  if  he 
never  gave  his  patients  any  alcohol.     He  said : — 

"  Never,  unless  I  know  they  are  going  to  die,  and  then  only 
to  give  them  an  easy  death." — A.  M.  T.  A.  Quarterly. 

Rev.  Canon  Wilberforce  of  England  in  an  ex- 
cellent pamphlet  upon  "  Doctors  and  Brandy,"  has 
some  fine  testimonies  against  the  medical  use  of 
alcohol  from  which  the  following  seven  are  taken  : — 

"  I  have  before  me  a  letter  from  an  able,  intelligent  physician, 
once  well  known  in  this  neighborhood.  He  says  (I  quote  lit- 
erally his  words)—  'Doctors  often  dose  men  to  death  with 
brandy:  The  influence  of  alcoholic  stimulants  should  be  re- 
garded in  the  same  light  as  that  of  such  potential  drugs  as 
prussic  acid,  and  other  dangerous  spirits." 

"  In  answer  to  your  question,  '  Do  circumstances  arise  when 
alcohol  alone  stands  between  the  patient  and  death  ?  '  I  say,  no„ 
if  you  have  any  other  medicines  at  command.  I  find  no  case 
of  exhaustion  that  may  not  equally  be  relieved  by  the  adminis- 
tration of  ammonia  or  camphor  as  with  alcohol.  For  the  last 
twelve  years  I  have  not  administered  alcohol  in  any  form." 

"  All  discoveries  in  science  or  philosophy  fall  into  utter  in- 
significance, compared  with  a  discovery  that  all  disorders  and 
diseases  can  be  safely  and  successfully  treated  without  the  use 
of  alcohol,  and  also  that  alcohol  is  not  an  aliment.  The  dis- 
covery is  of  world-wide  importance,  and  the  blessings  and  ben- 
efits arising  from  it  are  incalculable." 

"  When  a  patient  is  in  a  sinking  state  from  disease,  and 
when  a  medical  man  has  thought  an  alcoholic  stimulant  nec- 
essary to  snatch  the  patient  from  death,  in  this  case  the  great 
danger  is,  that  such  a  stimulant  will  extinguish  the  small 
spark  of  life  remaining,  and  that  the  patie?it  will  be  destroyed. 
It  was  truly  said  of  the  Brunonian  system,  ■  That  Dr.  Brown 
had  made  no  provision  in  his  system  for  the  recovery  of  ex* 


27%  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

haustion  arising  from  the  effects  of  taking  alcoholic  stimu- 
lants.' " 

"In  this  hospital  for  the  thirteen  months  there  have  been 
about  forty  cases  of  accidents,  rheumatic  fever,  bronchitis,  dis- 
eases of  the  joints,  etc.,  which  in  the  ordinary  course  would  be 
considered  to  require  stimulants,  and  they  have  all  been  treated 
by  the  medical  men  in  the  town,  according  to  their  cases  with- 
out any  stimulants,  except  in  one  case,  which  died." 

"  During  the  thirty-seven  years  of  my  practice  as  a  total  ab- 
stainer, I  have  never  used  one  drop  of  alcohol  as  a  ?nedicine. 
Four  years  ago,  in  the  town  in  which  I  reside,  which  contains 
only  i, 800  inhabitants.  1  was  called  upon  to  see  500  cases  of 
typhoid  fever.  Every  one  of  those  500  cases  was  treated  with- 
out one  drop  of  alcohol.  And  now,  the  question  is,  did  I  lose 
more  patients  out  of  that  500  than  I  should  have  done  had  they 
been  treated  with  alcohol  ?  The  statistics  of  the  deaths  by 
typhoid  fever  amount  to  from  sixteen  to  twenty-five  per  hun- 
dred. I  lost  during  that  year  four  per  cent.,  and  therefore  the 
fact  is  established  that  fever — typhoid  fever,  one  of  the  worst 
fevers  we  have  to  treat,  may  be  treated,  and  treated  successfully, 
without  the  use  of  intoxicating  drinks." 

"  My  father  desires  me  to  say  that,  after  a  very  extensive 
practice  of  more  than  sixty  years,  he  firmly  believes  that  not 
a  single  life  has  ever  been  saved  by  alcohol,  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, that  thousands  have  been  hurried  into  a  pre?nature 
grave  by  its  use" 

"  In  the  first  five  years  of  my  practice  I  was  a  strong  advo- 
cate of  the  alcoholic  plan  of  treating  diseases.  But  as  time  ad- 
vanced, and  experience,  observation  and  experiments  in  the 
treatment  of  disease  ripened  I  came  to  what  was  at  that  time 
(over  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago),  and  is  yet,  to  a  great  extent, 
an  unpopular  conclusion  that  I  was,  and  had  been,  making  a 
great  mistake  in  attributing  remedial,  constructive  or  recupera- 
ting powers  to  alcohol,  which  it  did  in  no  way  possess." — Dr. 
I.  N.  Quimby,  Jersey  City,  N.  J. 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  379 

Twelve  brief  opinions  of  English  physicians  : — 

"  No  medical  man  should  prescribe  alcohol  without  a  sense 
of  grave  responsibility." — 300  Metropolitan  Doctors  in 
1871. 

"  There  was  a  time  when  medical  men  gave  alcohol  right 
and  left  in  a  manner  that  I  consider  simply  disgraceful.'' — 
Dr.  Hare. 

"  An  altogether  unjustifiable  amount  of  indiscriminate  stim- 
ulant ordering  is  indulged  in  by  physicians."—  Medical  Press 
and  Circular. 

"  In  the  prescription  of  alcohol  I  recognize  the  very  great 
danger  of  inducing  a  habit  worse  in  its  consequences  to  the 
patient  than  disease  or  even  death  itself  could  be." — Dr.  W. 
Carter. 

"  We  ought  to  exercise  the  greatest  reluctance  in  prescribing 
alcohol  until  we  are  perfectly  convinced  that  no  other  form  of 
treatment  will  be  of  service ;  for  in  a  very  large  percentage  of 
cases  the  patient  will  continue  his  medicine  for  life,  and  in  a 
few  cases  the  doses  will  increase  with  wonderful  rapidity." — 
Dr.  J.  Muir  Howe. 

"  In  prescribing  alcohol  for  the  cure  of  a  disease,  you  set  up 
one  a  thousand  times  more  dangerous  than  the  one  for  which 
alcohol  is  prescribed." — Dr.  C.  J.  Russell. 

"  If  we  go  through  the  whole  series  of  aches  and  pains  to 
which  our  human  frame  is  subject,  we  shall  hardly  find  one 
in  which  alcohol  has  not  been  recommended  as  a  specific. " — 
Dr.  Greenfield. 

"  If  any  patients  seem  anxious  to  be  allowed  to  take  alcohol, 
they  are  just  the  ones  who  ought  to  be  refused."— Dr.  D. 
Williams. 

"  I  know  of  no  condition  of  disease  in  which  civ.:  at  least 
as  suitable  as  alcohol  cannot  be  found,  and,  considering  the 
evil  effects  so  frequently  produced  by  alcohol  on  health  and 


380  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

on  social  conditions,  I  think  it  will  be  admitted  as  desirable- 
that,  as  a  general  rule,  we  should  prefer  the  other  agents." — 
Dr.  N.  Carmichael. 

"  Should  we  contend  for  the  medicinal  use,  of  arsenic  if  its 
widespread  abuse  and  results  were  so  painfully  evident  as  is 
the  case  from  alcohol  ?  " — Dr.  Branson. 

"My  experience  is  that  in  treating  cases  of  fever  without 
alcohol  we  lose  only  5  per  cent. ;  but  25  per  cent,  with  alcohol. 
In  cases  of  delirium  treme?is,  where  the  patients  were  isolated 
and  cut  off  from  all  resource  to  spirits  and  liquors,  I  have 
never  lost  a  case." — Dr.  H.  Munro. 

"  I  believe  that  all  cases  of  operation  are  better  without 
alcohol,  and  I  never  administer  it." — Dr.  G.  S.  Bantock. 

"  Not  a  few  physicians,  by  the  loose  practice  of  prescribing 
alcoholic  drinks,  actually  create  in  their  patients  a  habit  for 
strong  drink  which  in  too  many  cases  is  beyond  control." — 
New  York  Medical  Record. 

"  I  have  no  use  for  alcohol  as  a  food,  drink  or  medicine, 
and  I  believe  it  is  never  used  in  either  large  or  small  quantities 
without  absolute  harm  to  the  one  partaking  of  it." — Dr.  A.  C. 
Rembaugh,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

"  Physicians  who  have  confidence  in  their  art  seldom  pre- 
scribe alcohol.  It  is  chiefly  done  by  those  who  believe  little  in 
the  utility  of  drugs,  or  who  indulge  in  alcoholics  themselves. 
I  regard  such  prescribing  as  unquestionably  a  stigma  upon  the 
medical  profession." — Dr.  A.  Wilder,  Newark,  N.  J. 

"According  to  my  experience  it  is  never  useful  as  a  medi- 
cine. Whatever  excuse  there  might  have  been  for  its  use  as  a 
medicine  when  the  knowledge  of  stimulants  and  antiseptics 
was  more  limited  than  now,  there  certainly  can  be  none  at  the 
present  time." — Dr.  W.  Paine,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

"  From  my  own  experience,  observation  and  investigations 
during  twenty-five  years  of  medical  practice  and  the  testimony 
presented   on   both  sides  of  the  question,  I   am   firmly  of  the 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  381 

opinion  that  alcoholic  beverages  may  be  stricken  from  the  list 
of  curative  agents  to  the  benefit  of  patients  under  all  forms  of 
disease." — Dr.  William  Hargreaves,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Dr.  William  A.  Hammond,  one  of  the  most 
celebrated  of  American  physicians,  while  not  non- 
alcoholic in  practice  made  this  statement  in  a  letter 
to  Hon.  W.  H.  Blair  :— 

"I  am  free  to  say  that,  weighing  all  the  points  for  and 
against,  mankind  would  be  better  mentally,  morally  and 
physically,  if  the  use  of  alcohol  were  altogether  abolished." — 
Blair's  Temperance  Move?nent,  page  69. 

Dr.  H.  D.  Didama,  Dean  of  the  Medical  College 
of  Syracuse  University,  Syracuse,  N.  Y.,  said  in 
January,  1898,  in  the  Voice  : — 

"  For  many  years  after  my  graduation  at  Albany,  in  1846, 
I  prescribed  alcohol,  and  for  twenty  years,  while  occupying  the 
chair  of  professor  of  the  science  and  art  of  medicine  in  the 
College  of  Medicine  of  Syracuse  University,  I  followed  in  my 
lectures — often  reluctantly  and  usually  afar  off,  but  still  I 
followed — the  almost  unanimous  teaching  of  authors,  ancient 
and  modern,  and  the  professors  in  the  medical  schools. 

"  Convinced  that  a  great  number  of  the  diseases  I  was  called 
to  treat  owed  their  existence  or  aggravation  to  the  use,  in 
I  alleged  moderation,  of  alcoholic  beverages,  and  that  not  in  a 
few  instances  this  use  was  commenced  and  even  continued  by 
the  advice  of  the  medical  attendants ;  convinced  also  by  the 
published  experiments  of  many  acute  observers  at  home  and 
abroad,  and  by  my  own  observations,  that  almost  all  diseases 
could  be  managed  as  well  if  not  better  by  the  non-use  of 
alcohol,  and  satisfied  from  the  communications  of  some 
brother  practitioners  that  the  fatality  in  certain  specified  dis- 
eases was  not  delayed,  to  say  the  least,  by  the  employment  of 
increasing  and  enormous  doses  of  wine,  whisky  and  brandy, 


382  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

and  influenced  also,  I  must  admit — overwhelmed,  indeed — by 
what  I  know  and  what  I  read  daily  of  the  pauperism,  domestic 
wretchedness,  crime,  insanity  and  incurable  maladies  trans- 
mitted to  innocent  offspring,  I  abandoned  entirely,  more  than 
three  years  ago,  the  use  of  alcoholic  remedies. 

"  I  have  endeavored  by  personal  example  and  earnest  council 
to  dissuade  my  patients  from  the  use  of  intoxicating  beverages 
and  medicines. 

"  The  outcome  of  this  practice,  medically  and  morally,  has 
been  satisfactory  to  myself,  and,  I  have  reason  to  believe,  tc* 
my  patients  also. 

"  Whatever  regrets  I  may  feel  for  my  former  teaching  and 
practice,  I  have  no  apology  to  offer  for  my  inconsistency  ex- 
cept that  once  given  by  Gerrit  Smith  : — '  I  know  more  to- 
day than  I  did  yesterday  ;  the  only  persons  who  never  change 
their  minds  are  God  and  a  fool.' 

**  Permit  me  to  add  that  while  there  may  be  an  honest  differ- 
ence of  opinion  regarding  the  efficacy  of  legislative  enactments 
in  overcoming  or  restraining  the  drink  habit,  there  should  be 
little  doubt  that  a  whole-hearted,  persistent,  precept-and-ex- 
ample  effort  of  the  medical  profession  exerted  as  individuals  on 
their  patients  and  the  families  of  their  patients,  and  as  associa- 
tions on  the  community  at  large,  would  do  immeasurable  good. 

"  And  the  newspapers  might  aid  materially  in  this  beneficent 
work  if,  while  they  continue  to  spread  before  our  households 
every  day  the  details  of  the  brawls  and  fights  of  drunken  men 
and  the  horrible  murders  which  they  commit,  they  would  dis- 
continue advertising,  without  warning  or  dissent,  side  by  side 
with  the  atrocities,  the  '  innocuous  beers,'  the  pure  malt  whis- 
kies, the  genuine  brandies,  guaranteed  to  prevent  and  cure  all 
manner  of  diseases." 

The  following  testimony  from  an  English  physi- 
cian is  significant : — 

"Although  I  know  beforehand  that  their  united  testimony 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  383 

must  be  in  favor  of  the  practice  of  total  abstinence  from  all 
intoxicating  drinks,  being  most  conducive  to  health  and  lon- 
gevity of  their  patients,  but  very  inimical  to  the  pocket  interests 
of  themselves,  my  own  experience  is,  that  my  teetotal  patients 
are  seldom  ill,  and  that  they  get  well  very  soon  again,  if  they 
are  attacked  by  disease.  A  higher  principle  than  that  of  gain 
must  influence  a  medical  man's  mind,  or  he  will  never  advocate 
the  doctrine  of  total  abstinence."— J.  J.  Ritchie,  M.  R.  C.  S., 
Leek. 

"  One  of  the  most  dangerous  phases  of  the  use  of  alcohol  is 
the  production  of  a  feeling  of  well  being  in  weakly,  dyspeptic, 
irritable,  nervous  or  anaemic  patients.  In  consequence  of  the 
temporary  relief  so  obtained,  the  patient  develops  a  craving 
for  alcohol,  which  in  many  cases  can  end  only  in  one  way, 
and,  as  I  felt  compelled  to  tell  an  assembly  of  ladies  a  short 
time  ago,  the  very  symptoms  for  the  alleviation  of  which 
alcohol  is  usually  taken  are  those,  the  presence  of  which 
renders  it  exceedingly  desirable  that  alcohol  should  not  be 
taken." — Dr.  G.  Sims  Woodhead,  of  London. 

In  an  address  upon  the  London  Temperance 
Hospital  delivered  shortly  before  his  death,  Sir  B. 
W.  Richardson  gave  a  brief  review  of  the  influences 
which  led  him  to  abandon  the  medical  use  of  alco- 
hol. The  following  is  taken  from  that  address  as 
reported  in  the  Medical  Pioneer  : — 

"  I  was  a  member  of  the  Vestry  of  St.  Marylebone,  and  we 
had  in  our  parish  a  very  serious  outbreak  of  small-pox,  attend- 
ed with  a  considerable  mortality.  In  his  report  to  us  Dr. 
Whitmore  stated  that  in  his  treatment  of  earlier  cases  of  the 
confluent  and  hemorrhagic,  and  malignant  forms  of  disease, 
stimulants  of  wine  and  brandy  were  freely  administered  with- 
out any  apparent  benefit ;  and,  that  after  consultation  with  Mr. 
Cross,  the  resident  surgeon,  they  resolved  to  substitute   simple 


3 $4  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

nutriments,  such  as  milk,  eggs  and  beef-tea,  at  frequent  inter- 
vals, with  discontinuance  of  stimulants  altogether.  The  result 
of  the  change  was  most  satisfactory,  and  many  bad  cases  did 
well,  which  under  the  stimulant  plan  they  believed  would  have 
terminated  fatally.  Again  I  was  struck  very  much  by  a  report 
made  by  Mr.  Cadbury,  in  which  that  gentleman  showed  the 
course  that  was  going  on  in  various  hospitals.  The  amount  of 
alcohol  in  twelve  hospitals  in  London,  taken  by  the  inpatients, 
varied  in  ounces  from  37,531  in  one  establishment  to  300,094  in 
another  during  the  year  1878.  I  also  found,  from  the  same 
author,  that  the  whole  cost  in  St.  George's  Union  Infirmary  for 
the  year  1878  was  £8.  3s.  6d.,  amongst  2,496  patients,  while  the 
cost  of  the  same  number  at  the  average  of  the  twelve  hospitals 
was  ^124.  About  this  same  time  I  also  remarked  that  in  many 
of  the  public  institutions  of  England  there  was  a  reduction 
something  similar  in  kind,  if  not  to  the  same  extent,  and  that 
the  number  of  persons  who  suffered  seemed  to  make  better  re- 
coveries than  those  who  were  taking  the  free  amount  of  stimul- 
ant. The  effect  of  these  observations  chimed  in  very  remark- 
ably with  the  physiological  experiments  it  had  been  my  duty  to 
carry  out,  and  which  tended  to  show  in  a  most  striking  manner 
that  the  action  of  alcohol  in  the  body  very  much  differed  from 
the  ordinary  opinion  that  had  been  held  upon  it,  and  thereupon, 
in  my  own  practice,  I  abandoned  the  use  of  alcohol,  and  began 
to  give  instead  small  quantities  of  simple,  nourishing,  dietic 
food,  a  course  I  pursued  up  to  the  present  time  with  the  most 
satisfactory  results,  results  I  have  never  felt  any  occasion  to  re- 
gret. By  these  steps,  learned  in  the  first  place  from  the  study 
of  alcohol  in  its  action  on  man,  I  was  led  to  become  a  believer 
that  alcohol  is  of  no  more  service  in  disease  than  it  is  in  health, 
and  a  lengthened  experience  in  this  matter  has  really  confirmed 
the  correctness  of  the  idea." 

In  his  last  report  as  physician  to  the  Temperance 
Hospital   Dr.    Richardson   made   some  remarkable 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  385 

statements  upon  the  fallacy  of  the  general  ideas  of 
stimulation.  So  interesting  are  his  views  that  they 
are  incorporated  here  : — 

"  Sir  B.  W.  Richardson,  M.  D.,  who  was  unable  to  be  pres- 
ent, communicated  (through  the  secretary)  his  annual  report  as 
physician  to  the  hospital-  After  twelve  months  further  trial  of 
the  treatment  of  all  kinds  of  disease  in  this  institution  without 
the  assistance  of  alcohol,  either  as  a  diet  or  a  medicine,  he  (Sir 
B.  W.  Richardson)  was  fully  sustained  in  the  belief  that  the 
plan  pursued  had  been  attended  with  every  possible  advantage. 
About  500  cases  had  come  under  his  observation  and"  treatment 
as  in  previous  years,  and  these  cases  had  been  of  the  most 
varied  kind,  including  all  patients  who  were  not  directly  suffer- 
ing from  contagious  disease.  In  not  one  instance  had  alcohol 
been  administered,  nor  had  anything  like  it  been  used  in  the 
way  of  a  substitute,  and  there  had  not  been  a  single  case  in 
which  he  could  conceive  that  it  was  ever  called  for,  while  the 
success  which  had  attended  the  treatment  generally  had  been 
superior  to  anything  he  had  ever  seen  following  upon  the 
administration  of  alcoholic  stimulants.  One  great  truth 
which  had  forced  itself  upon  him  had  reference  to  the  doc- 
trine of  stimulation  generally.  It  had  been  one  of  the  grand 
ideas  in  medicine  that  there  came  times  when  sick  peo- 
ple were  benefited  by  being  stimulated.  It  was  argued  that 
they  were  low,  and  in  order  that  they  might  be  raised  and 
brought  nearer  to  the  natural  life  they  required  something  like 
alcohol  to  quicken  the  circulation,  quicken  the  secretion,  and 
help  to  preserve  the  vitality.  But  the  experience  which  was 
learned  here  tended  to  show  in  the  most  distinct  manner  that 
that  very  old  and  apparently  rational  idea  was  fallacious.  Such 
stimulation  only  tended  ultimately  to  wear  out  the  powers  of  the 
body,  as  well  as  change  the  physical  conditions  under  which  the 
body  worked.  True  lowness  meant  practical  over-fatigue,  and 
when  the  body  was  spurred  on,  or  stimulated,  over-fatigue  was 


386  ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE. 

simply  intensified  and  increased.  What,  therefore,  was  wanted 
was  not  stimulation,  but  repose.  The  sufferer  was  placed  in 
the  best  position  to  gain  entire  rest,  and  all  the  surroundings  or 
environments  were  employed  which  tended  to  prevent  waste. 
The  air  was  kept  at  the  proper  temperature,  the  body  of  the 
patient  kept  warm,  and  the  simplest  and  most  easily  digested 
foods  were  used ;  the  patient's  condition  then  swung  round  to 
a  natural  state,  and  he  began  to  get  well.  In  other  cases  where 
the  sick  were  brought  under  observation  suffering  already  from 
excitable  condition  of  the  senses,  with  congestions  here  and  there 
of  the  circulatory  or  nervous  systems,  with  imperfect  condition 
of  the  brain,  and  with  the  elements  of  what  was  usually  denom- 
inated inflammatory  or  febrile  state — the  stimulant  was  al- 
ready present  (was,  indeed  the  cause  of  the  symptoms)  and  did 
not  want  in  any  degree  to  be  enforced  further  by  the  acts  of 
treatment.  Here,  therefore,  they  were  on  the  safest  grounds  as 
regarded  methods  of  administration,  for  they  calmed  as  well  as 
they  possibly  could  both  mind  and  body  and  left  nature  to  do 
the  rest,  which  she  did  with  the  best  and  most  tranquilizing  ef- 
fect. On  both  sides,  therefore,  in  the  treatment  of  disease,  they 
did  good,  and  that  was  the  reason,  he  believed,  why  their  re- 
turns were  so  satisfactory.  It  often  happened  in  an  institution 
where  some  particular  plan  was  carried  out  that  the  old  ideas 
in  which  they  had  been  bred  were  without  intention  refined  or 
suppressed.  For  example,  he  had  been  taught,  and  believed  for 
a  number  of  years,  that  some  medicament  of  a  particular  kind 
was  needful  for  some  particular  train  of  symptoms,  be  the  sur- 
rounding conditions  what  they  might.  There  was  no  doubt 
that  this  same  feeling  had  given  rise  to  the  persistent  use  of 
alcohol;  but,  greatly  to  his  own  surprise,  he  discovered  that 
when  the  surroundings  were  all  good,  the  rule  that  applied  to 
alcohol  constantly  applied  to  other  substances  that  were  called 
remedies,  with  the  result  that  recovery  was  often  just  as  good 
without  the  particular  remedies  as  with  them,  so  that  a  revision 
came  quite  simply  with  regard  to  stimulating  agents  and   their 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  387 

properties,  and  also  with  regard  to  every  medicine  that  might 
at  earlier  times  have  been  employed.  He  had  seen  many  cases 
in  this  hospital  recover  without  any  other  aid  than  that  of  the 
environments,  which  cases  he  would  have  said  could  not  possi- 
bly have  gone  on  well,  or  towards  complete  recovery,  unless 
some  special  recipe  had  been  followed.  He  believed  the  day 
would  come  when  others,  learning  this  same  truth  as  he  had  been 
obliged  to  learn  it,  would  act  on  such  simple  principles  that  the 
books  of  remedies  would  have  to  be  vastly  curtailed,  It  would 
be  seen  that  there  was  such  a  tendency  of  disease  to  get  well 
of  itself,  or  by  virtue  of  natural  processes,  of  which  people  had 
at  present  but  a  very  poor  idea,  that  the  art  of  physic  would 
pass  into  directions  how  to  live  rather  than  into  dogmatic  asser- 
tions that  particular  means  must  be  employed  in  addition  to  the 
common  details  of  life  for  the  process  of  cure.  If  therefore 
they  learned  in  this  hospital  by  their  reduced  death-rates  the 
true  lesson,  the  institution  would  have  performed  a  double  duty, 
and  become  one  of  the  test  objects  in  medicine,  and  in  the  field 
of  disease.  They  made  no  attempt  by  selection,  or  by  any  side 
action,  to  exaggerate  their  results.  The  cases  were  taken  in- 
discriminately, except  that  they  gave  admission  to  the  worst 
cases  first ;  that  was  to  say,  they  never  caused  patients  to  come 
under  their  treatment  if  they  saw  they  were  only  slightly  affect- 
ed, and  were  bound  to  get  well." — Medical  Pioneer. 

Dr.  Landmann,  of  Boppard-on-the-Rhine,  Ger- 
many, says  : — 

"  The  members  of  the  Association  of  Abstaining  Physicians, 
reject  the  use  of  spirituous  liquors  in  every  form,  and  particu- 
larly declare  the  use  of  alcohol  at  the  sick-bed  a  scientific  error 
of  the  saddest  kind.  In  order  to  war  against  this  abuse,  they 
earnestly  appeal  to  the  officers  having  charge  of  funds  for  the 
sick,  henceforth,  under  no  circumstances,  any  longer  to  permit 
the  prescription  of  wine,  whisky  and  brandy  for  sick  members  ; 
but  to  resist  to  the  utmost,  according  to  the  right  given  them 


388  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

by  the  laws  insuring  the  sick,  the  taking  of  spirituous  liquors, 
under  the  false  pretext  that  they  have  a  curative  and  strength- 
ening effect." 

Dr.  Bleuler,  Rheineau,  Switzerland,  says : — 

"  The  treatment  of  chronic  diseases  with  alcohol  is  contrary 
to  our  knowledge  of  the  physiological  effects  of  alcohol.  There 
is  no  probability  that  its  use  will  be  beneficial,  certainly  its  ben- 
efits have  not  been  established.  Often  an  injurious  result  is 
proved. 

"  It  is  not  implied  that  there  may  not  be  some  benefit  in  the 
use  of  alcohol  in  cases  of  sudden  weakness  with  or  without 
fever.  But  even  in  such  cases  the  benefit  is  not  demonstrated. 
At  any  rate,  other  remedies  can  with  advantage  be  substituted 
for  alcohol. 

"  The  essential  thing  in  the  treatment  of  all  alcoholic  dis- 
eases, delirium  tremens  included,  is. total  abstinence. 

"  The  physiological  effect  of  alcohol  is  that  of  a  poison,  whose 
use  is  to  be  limited  to  the  utmost.  Even  the  moderate  use  as 
now  practiced  is  injurious. 

"  The  customary  beneficial  results  unquestionably  depend 
chiefly  on  suggestion,  and  by  making  the  patient  believe  falsely 
that  the  momentary  subjective  better  feeling  means  actual  im- 
provement. 

"  Physicians  share  the  blame  of  the  present  flood  of  alcohol- 
ism. They  are,  therefore,  morally  bound  to  remedy  the  eviL 
Only  by  means  of  personal  abstinence  can  this  be  done." 

Dr.  A.  Frick,  professor  in  Zurich,  is  a  careful 
student  and  an  influential  writer  on  alcohol.  His 
statements  are  weighty.     This  is  his  testimony : — 

"  In  larger  doses,  alcohol  is  absolutely  injurious  in  the  treat- 
ment of  acute  fevers,  especially  in  case  of  pneumonia,  ty- 
phus and  erysipelas.     They  first  of  all  injure  the  general  state 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  389 

of  the  patient,  they  cause  delirium,  or  increase  it  if  already  ex- 
isting, and,  secondly,  they  injure  most  seriously  the  organs  of 
digestion  and  interfere  with  proper  nourishment ;  thus  they  have 
a  weakening  effect,  instead  of  preventing  weakness,  which  they 
are  usually  supposed  to  do.  In  case  no  alcohol  is  used,  the 
convalescence  is  much  more  rapid.  In  no  case  has  the  benefit 
of  treatment  with  alcohol  been  established.  According  to  the 
view  of  the  most  eminent  pharmacologists,  the  stimulating 
effect  of  alcohol  consists  simply  in  a  local  irritation  of  the  mu- 
cous membrane  of  the  stomach,  similar  to  that  produced  by  a 
mustard  plaster." 

The  following  selection  from  the  excellent  address 
of  Dr.  Harvey,  president  of  the  Virginia  State  Med- 
ical Society,  at  a  recent  meeting,  is  a  most  timely 
caution  :  — 

"  Our  prisons,  asylums  and  homes  are  filled  with  the  victims 
of  the  careless  and  indiscriminate  use  by  the  medical  profession 
of  those  twin  demons,  alcohol  and  opium,  which,  save  tubercu- 
losis, are  doing  more  to  debase  and  destroy  the  human  race 
than  all  the  other  diseases  together.  I  most  earnestly  beseech 
you,  young  men,  who  are  just  starting  out  in  life,  to  stay  your 
hand  in  the  use  of  these  agents  in  your  own  persons,  and  in 
your  daily  work,  and  to  beware  of  the  seductive  needle,  and  the 
cup  that  inebriates.  Make  it  an  invariable  rule,  never  to  pre- 
scribe alcohol,  nor  one  of  the  solinaceus  or  narcotic  drugs,  if 
you  can  possibly  avoid  it.  The  use  of  alcohol  and  opium  de- 
bases the  minds  and  morals  of  habitues,  predisposes  especially 
to  Bright's  disease  and  insanity,  and  lays  the  foundation  in  the 
offspring  for  the  majority  of  the  neuroses  and  degenerations  of 
modern  civilized  life.  The  physical  fatigue  of  long  working 
hours,  loss  of  sleep,  mental  strain,  worry  and  hunger,  invite  the 
tired  physician,  especially,  to  their  seductive  use.  To  totally 
abstain  from  them  is  always  business,  and  very  often  character, 
and  even  life  itself.     I  feel  free  to  speak  to  you  on  this  subject 


390  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

very  earnestly,  my  younger  brothers,  for,  having  prescribed 
alcohol  for  over  thirty  years,  I  am  familiar  with  its  tendencies 
and  its  dangers." 

Dr.  T.  D.  Crothers  of  Hartford,  Conn.,  in  an  arti- 
cle upon  "  The  Decline  of  Alcohol  as  a  Medicine,'* 
says : — 

"  Thoughtful  observers  recognize  that  alcohol  as  a  medicine 
is  rapidly  becoming  a  thing  of  the  past.  Ten  years  ago  leading 
medical  men  and  text-books  spoke  of  stimulants  as  essentials 
of  many  diseases,  and  defended  their  use  with  warmth  and 
positiveness.  To-day  this  is  changed.  Medical  men  seldom 
refer  to  spirits  as  remedies,  and  when  they  do,  express  great 
conservatism  and  caution.  The  text-books  show  the  same 
changes,  although  some  dogmatic  authors  refuse  to  recognize 
the  change  of  practice,  and  still  cling  to  the  idea  of  the  food 
value  of  spirits. 

"  Druggists  who  supply  spirits  to  the  profession  recognize  a 
tremendous  dropping  off  in  the  demand.  A  distiller  who,  ten 
years  ago,  sold  many  thousand  gallons  of  choice  whiskies,  al- 
most exclusively  to  medical  men,  has  lost  his  trade  altogether, 
and  gone  out  of  business.  Wine  men,  too,  recognize  this 
change,  and  are  making  every  effort  to  have  wine  used  in  the 
place  of  spirits  in  the  sick-room.  Proprietary  medicine  dealers 
are  putting  all  sorts  of  compounds  of  wine  with  iron,  bark,  etc., 
on  the  market  with  the  same  idea.  It  is  doubtful  if  any  of  these 
will  be  able  to  secure  any  permanent  place  in  therapeutics. 

"  The  fact  is,  alcohol  is  passing  out  of  practical  therapeutics 
because  its  real  action  is  becoming  known.  Facts  are  accumu- 
lating in  the  laboratory,  in  the  autopsy  room,  at  the  bedside, 
and  in  the  work  of  experimental  psychologists,  which  show  that 
alcohol  is  a  depressant  and  a  narcotic ;  that  it  cannot  build  up 
tissue,  but  always  acts  as  a  degenerative  power  ;  and  that  its 
apparent  effects  of  raising  the  heart's  action  and  quickening 
functional  activities  are  misleading  and  erroneous. 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  391 

"  French  and  German  specialists  have  denounced  spirits  both 
as  a  beverage  and  a  medicine,  and  shown  by  actual  demonstra- 
tion that  alcohol  is  a  poison  and  a  depressant,  and  that  any 
therapeutic  action  it  is  assumed  to  have  is  open  to  question. 

"  All  this  is  not  the  result  of  agitation  and  wild  condemnation 
by  persons  who  feel  deeply  the  sad  consequences  of  the  abuse 
of  spirits.  It  is  simply  the  outcome  of  the  gradual  accumula- 
tion of  facts  that  have  been  proven  within  the  observation  of 
every  thoughtful  person.  The  exact  or  approximate  facts  relat- 
ing to  alcohol  can  now  be  tested  by  instruments  of  precision. 
We  can  weigh  and  measure  the  effects,  and  it  is  not  essential 
to  theorize  or  speculate  ;  we  can  test  and  prove  with  reasonable 
certainty  what  was  before  a  matter  of  doubt. 
w  "  Medical  men  who  doubt  the  value  of  spirits  are  no  more 
considered  fanatics  or  extremists,  but  as  leaders  along  new  and 
wider  lines  of  research.  Alcohol  in  medicine,  except  as  a  nar- 
cotic and  anaesthetic,  is  rapidly  falling  into  disfavor,  and  will 
soon  be  put  aside  and  forgotten." 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

TWO  GREAT  LEADERS  IN  MEDICAL   TEMPERANCE. 

Dr.  Nathan  Smith  Davis,  A.  M.,  L.  L.  D., 
of  Chicago,  111.,  was  born  January  9,  181 7,  in  Chen- 
ango County,  N.  Y.  Until  the  age  of  sixteen  he 
labored  upon  the  home  farm,  laying  thus  the  foun- 
dation for  the  remarkably  healthy  and  vigorous 
physical  organization  which  has  served  him  so  well 
through  an  unusually  busy  and  useful  career. 

His  father  secured  for  him  the  best  educational 
advantages  of  the  time,  and  at  seventeen  years  of 
age  he  began  the  study  of  medicine  and  graduated 
with  honor  from  the  College  of  Physicians  and 
Surgeons,  of  the  Western  District  of  New  York, 
Jan.  31,  1837,  a  few  days  after  his  twentieth-  birth- 
day. He  entered  upon  active  practice  at  once,  first 
at  Vienna,  N.  Y.,  then  at  Binghamton,  and  in  1849 
removed  to  Chicago,  where  he  has  since  resided. 

Dr.  Davis  has  always  been  a  profound  student  of 
physiology,  and  at  the  very  beginning  of  his  pro- 
fessional career  adopted  what  has  happily  been  de- 
nominated "  rational  medicine." 

Soon  after  taking  up  his  residence  in  Chicago  he 
began  to  make  experimental  studies  as  to  the 
392 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  393 

effects  of  alcohol  as  a  producer  of  heat.  On  Christ- 
mas Day,  1854,  he  delivered,  by  request  of  the 
students,  a  remarkable  lecture  in  Rush  Medical 
College,  where  he  was  a  professor.  The  lecture 
was  afterwards  published  under  the  title  of"  A  Lec- 
ture  on  the  Effects  of  Alcoholic  Drinks  on  the 
Human  System,  and  the  Duty  of  Medical  Men  in 
Relation  Thereto."  An  appendix  gave  a  full  ac- 
count of  the  experiments  he  had  been  making  in 
relation  to  the  effects  of  alcohol  upon  respiration 
and  animal  heat,  by  which  the  author  showed  for 
the  first  time  that  alcohol,  when  administered  to  a 
warm-blooded  animal  diminishes  instead  of  increasr 
ing  the  temperature. 

It  was  a  resolution  offered  by  Dr.  Davis  in  a 
meeting  of  the  New  York  State  Medical  Society 
which  led  to  the  organization  of  the  American  Med- 
ical Association.  This  fact,  together  with  his  ad- 
vanced age,  and  great  prominence  in  the  Association, 
has  led  to  his  being  called  of  late  years  the 
"Father"  of  the  A.  M.  A.  He  has  several  times 
been  president  of  the  Association,  and  was  presi- 
dent of  the  Ninth  International  Medical  Congress. 
He  was  for  six  years  editor  of  the  Journal  of  the 
American  Medical  Association. 

He  also  was  instrumental  in  establishing  the  first 
hospital  in  Chicago,  the  Mercy  Hospital,  with 
which  he  was  connected  for  thirty  years,  and  dur- 
ing which  time  no  alcohol  was  administered  in  the 
medical  wards. 


394  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Northwestern 
University,  and  of  many  other  important  institu- 
tions in  Chicago,  and  occupied  for  some  years  the 
position  of  Dean  of  the  Medical  College  of  North- 
western University. 

At  a  medical  meeting  held  several  years  ago  he 
stated  that  he  had  never  taken  a  vacation  except 
such  as  was  obtained  by  attendance  upon  the  vari- 
ous society  meetings  of  his  profession. 

He  was  influential  in  the  organization  of  the 
American  Medical  Temperance  Association,  of 
which  he  has  been  the  president  since  the  begin- 
ning. In  conjunction  with  Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg  and 
Dr.  T.  D.  Crothers,  he  has  edited  the  Bulletin  of 
the  A.  M.  T.  A.  since  its  inception.  It  is  a  very 
valuable  and  interesting  magazine. 

He  has  written  many  vigorous  articles  for  the 
medical  press  of  the  country,  giving  strong,  clear, 
scientific  reasons  why  alcohol  is  injurious  both  as 
beverage  and  as  medicine.  His  distinguished  suc- 
cess in  his  profession  has  made  his  opinions 
respected  even  where  his  brethren  failed  to  agree 
with  him. 

The  great  value  of  his  work  for  the  temperance 
cause  has  not  yet  been  fully  recognized,  but  the  day 
is  coming  when  this  "  good  physician  "  will  rank  with 
Neal  Dow  and  Frances  E.  Willard,  in  the  affection- 
ate regard  of  American  people. 

Physicians  are   rapidly  adopting  his  opinions  of 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  395 

the  uselessness  and  harmfulness  of  alcohol ;  when 
the  great  majority  have  courage  and  conviction  to 
stand  where  he  stands  there  will  no  longer  be  any 
excuse  for  the  manufacture  or  consumption  of  alco- 
holic beverages,  except  the  innate  depravity  of  the 
human  race. 

It  should  be  said  of  Dr.  Davis  that  he  has  been  a 
tower  of  strength  to  two  departments  of  the 
National  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union, 
that  of  Scientific  Temperance  Instruction,  and  that 
of  Non-Alcoholic  Medication.  He  has  never  been 
too  busy  to  answer  letters  of  inquiry  and  requests 
for  help,  and  has  given  invaluable  counsel. 

In  religious  faith,  Dr.  Davis  is  a  member  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  church.  It  is  possible  that 
the  total  abstinence  training  of  this  denomination 
may  have  given  his  mind  a  bias  of  suspicion  towards 
alcohol,  a  suspicion  which  science  showed  him  was 
well  founded. 

The  late  Sir  Benjamin  Ward  Richardson,  M.  D., 
was  for  years  to  medical  temperance  work  in  Eng- 
land what  Dr.  Davis  has  been  to  it  in  America, 
with  the  addition  of  coming  frequently  before  the 
public  to  give  scientific  temperance  addresses. 

Dr.  Richardson  was  born  October  31st,  1828  at 
Somerby,  Leicestershire,  England.  His  education 
was  obtained  at  Anderson's  University,  Glasgow, 
Scotland,  a  school  at  that  time  noted  for  the  know- 
ledge and  skill  of  its  professional  staff. 


396  ALCOHOL   AS   A    MEDICINE. 

After  his  graduation  in  1850  he  joined  in 
practice  with  the  editor  of  the  Medical  Gazette, 
afterward  the  Medical  Times.  To  this,  and  other 
medical  papers,  he  contributed  many  scientific 
articles  of  great  interest. 

Having  become  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  College  of 
Physicians,  he  devoted  himself  to  original  experi- 
mental researches  in  medical  and  sanitary  science, 
and  with  much  success.  In  1867  he  was  elected  a 
Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society  of  England,  and  in 
1868  was  presented  by  six  hundred  of  his  medical 
brethren  with  a  splendid  microscope,  and  a  purse  of 
a  thousand  guineas,  as  a  mark  of  their  admiration 
and  regard.  He  was  chosen  repeatedly  as  presi- 
dent of  the  London  Medical  Society,  and  other 
learned  bodies. 

In  1893  Queen  Victoria  conferred  the  honor  of 
knighthood  upon  him  for  his  distinguished  services 
in  his  profession. 

In  i860  to  1 86 1  while  engaged  in  some  experimen- 
tal physiological  researches,  Dr.  Richardson  began 
as  he  says,  for  the  first  time,  to  doubt  the  commonly- 
accepted  value  and  physiological  position  of  alco- 
hol. Several  years  were  then  spent  in  the  study  of 
the  action  of  different  alcohols.  He  arrived  at  the 
same  results  as  Dr.  Davis,  that  alcohol  does  not 
give  strength  nor  heat  to  the  body,  but  really  robs 
the  body  of  both.  Yet  he  had  no  interest  in  the 
temperance  movement,  and  was  not  for  some  years 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  397 

afterward    a   total    abstainer,    drinking    only    upon 
social  occasions  however. 

In  1869  he  began  to  abstain  for  the  purpose  of 
experimenting  upon  himself,  and  found  himself 
feeling  so  much  better  that  he  began  to  practice 
total  abstinence  steadily. 

In  the  winter  of  1874-5  he  delivered  the  famous 
Cantor  Lectures  on  Alcohol  which  were  afterwards 
published,  and  had  large  sale.  These  gave  the 
results  of  his  study  of  alcohol  in  language  free 
from  scientific  terminology. 

When  the  British  Medical  Temperance  Associ- 
ation was  organized  he  became  its  president,  and 
continued  in  this  office  until  the  time  of  his  death. 
He  was  also  editor  of  the  Medical  Temperance 
Review,  called  Medical  Pioneer  for  a  time. 

He  wrote  a  Temperance  Lesson  Book  which  has 
been  extensively  used  in  schools,  and  he  is  said  to 
have  been  the  first  to  advocate  the  teaching  of 
scientific  temperance  in  public  schools. 

Dr.  Richardson  was  in  great  request  for  scien- 
tific temperance  addresses,  hence  the  people 
learned  from  him  the  most  weighty  and  unanswer- 
able arguments  against  the  use  of  alcoholic  bev- 
erages. 

In  1892  he  was  elected  physician  to  the  London 
Temperance  Hospital.  He  was  very  slow  in 
abandoning  the  medicinal  use  of  alcohol,   being  a 


398  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

conservative  by  nature,  yet  finally  lost  all  faith  in 
it  as  a  remedial  agent. 

His  death  was  a  severe  loss  to  the  temperance 
cause,  but  the  work  he  did  will  never  die. 
Through  the  teachings  of  this  great  and  good 
man,  and  others  like  unto  him,  the  appalling 
delusions  regarding  man's  powerful  enemy,  Alcohol, 
will  yet  be  dispelled. 

Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg  of  Battle  Creek,  Mich.,  Dr.  T. 
D.  Crothers  of  Hartford,  Conn.,  Dr.  J.  J.  Ridge 
and  Dr.  Sims  Woodhead  of  London,  England, 
are  younger  men  upon  whom  the  mantles  of  these 
temperance  Elijahs,  Davis  and  Richardson,  seem  to 
have  fallen. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

MEDICAL   TEMPERANCE   SOCIETIES. 

The  first  society  of  physicians  ever  organized 
for  the  study  of  alcohol  in  its  effects  upon  man 
was  the  "  American  Association  for  the  Study  and 
Cure  of  Inebriety."  This  society  dates  its  begin- 
ning from  November  29,  1870,  when  its  first  meet- 
ing was  held  in  the  parlor  of  the  Young  Mens 
Christian  Association  of  New  York.  # 

Dr.  Willard  Parker,  one  of  the  leading  surgeons 
of  New  York  City  was  elected  president,  and  had 
associated  with  him  some  of  the  prominent  pro- 
fessional men  of  that  day.  In  1876  the  Journal  of 
Inebriety  was  established,  Dr.  T  .  D.  Crothers  of 
Hartford,  Conn.,  being  connected  with  it  as  editor 
from  its  inception  to  the  present  time. 

This  association  sets  forth  the  following  as  its 
principles : — 

1.  Inebriety  is  a  disease. 

2.  It  is  curable  as  other  diseases  are. 

3.  The  constitutional  tendency  to  this  disease  may  be  either 
inherited  or  acquired ;  but  the  disease  is  usually  induced  by 
the  habitual  use  of  alcohol  or  other  narcotic  substances. 

4.  Alcohol  has  its  place   in  the  arts  and  sciences,  but  as  a 

399 


400  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

medicine  it  is  classed  among  the  poisons,  and  its  internal  use  is 
always  more  or  less  dangerous. 

5.  All  methods  hitherto  employed  for  the  treatment  of 
inebriety  that  have  not  recognized  the  disordered  physical  con- 
dition caused  by  alcohol,  opium  or  other  narcotics,  have 
proved  inadequate  to  its  cure ;  hence  the  establishment  of 
hospitals  for  the  specific  treatment  of  inebriety,  in  which  such 
conditions  are  recognized,  becomes  a  positive  need  of  the  age. 

6.  In  view  of  these  facts,  and  the  increased  success  of  the 
treatment  in  inebriate  asylums,  this  association  urges  that 
every  large  city  should  have  its  local  and  temporary  hospital  for 
both  the  reception  and  care  of  inebriates  ;  and  ■  that  every  State 
should  have  one  or  more  hospitals  for  their  more  permanent 
detention  and  treatment. 

7.  Facts  and  experience  indicate  clearly  that  it  is  the  duty  of 
the  civil  authorities  to  recognize  inebriety  as  a  disease,  and  to 
provide  means  in  hospitals  and  asylums  for  its  scientific  treat- 
ment, in  place  of  the  penal  methods  of  fines  and  imprisonment 
hitherto  in  use,  with  all  its  attendant  evils. 

8.  Finally,  the  officers  of  such  hospitals  and  asylums  should 
have  ample  legal  power  of  control  over  their  patients,  and 
authority  to  retain  them  a  sufficient  length  of  time  for  their 
permanent  cure. 

Drunkenness  was  generally  looked  upon  as  a 
vice  only  when  this  society  began  its  work,  but  is 
now  commonly  recognized  as  a  disease  as  well  as  a 
vice.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  day  may  speedily 
come  when  all  civilized  countries  will  have  an 
Inebriates'  Act  similar  to  that  of  England,  which 
provides  for  the  establishment  of  inebriate  reforma- 
tories, and  for  the  detention  in  such  reformatories 
of  habitual  drunkards  after  the  fourth  conviction 
for  drunkenness. 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  40I 

This  act  is  undoubtedly  the  result  of  the  study 
of  inebriety  carried  on  in  England  by  a  society 
similar  to  the  American  Association  set  on  foot  by 
Dr.  Willard  Parker.  The  leading  spirit  in  the 
English  society  for  years  was  the  late  Dr.  Norman 
Kerr,  a  recognized  authority  in  this  branch  of  medi- 
cal research. 

In  1876  the  British  Medical  Temperance  Associa- 
tian  was  organized  with  Sir  Benjamin  Ward  Rich- 
ardson as  president,  and  in  1890  the  American 
Medical  Temperance  Association  had  its  beginning, 
Dr.  Nathan  S.  Davis,  being  president  from  the  first 
meeting  to  the  present  time.  The  object  of  these 
two  associations  was,  and  is,  to  promote  the  scien- 
tific study  of  alcohol  as  a  medicine.  Only  total 
abstaining  physicians  are  taken  into  membership. 
There  is  no  pledge  against  the  use  of  alcohol  in 
medical  practice. 

The  journal  of  the  British  society  is  the  Medical 
Temperance  Review,  edited  now  by  Dr.  J.  J.  Ridge  ; 
the  journal  of  the  American  society  is  the  Bulletin 
of  the  A.M.  T.  A.  Both  of  these  magazines  are 
replete  with  interesting  matter  respecting  alcohol 
from  a  medicinal  point  of  view. 

Upon  the  continent  of  Europe  there  are  now  six 
medical  organizations  for  the  study  of  alcohol. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  work  of  these  various 
societies  has  had  much  to  do  with  the  noticeable 
decline  in  the  medical  use  and  advocacy  of  alcohol. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 
THE  USE  OF  ALCOHOL  WITH  CHLOROFORM  AND  ETHER. 

Dr.  N.  S.  Davis  says : — 

"  Clinical  facts  without  number,  and  direct  experiments  exe- 
cuted by  numerous  strictly  scientific  investigators,  both  show 
that  each  of  these  drugs,  taken  separately  or  all  in  combination, 
act  as  direct  paralyzers,  first,  of  the  cerebral  hemispheres  (anaes- 
thesia), and  next  of  the  respiratory  and  cardinal  nerve  centres 
and  ganglia,  thereby  inducing  death  either  by  failure  of  respi- 
ration or  circulation,  or  by  both  simultaneously.  Facts  that  we 
have  collected  from  a  great  variety  of  sources  on  different  oc- 
casions, demonstrate  the  fact  that  these  three  agents  act,  as 
just  indicated,  in  direct  proportion  to  the  quantity  used,  there 
being  no  dose,  however  small,  and  no  stage  in  the  progress  of 
their  influence  when  they  increase  either  respiratory  or  cardiac 
efficiency.  Acting  in  the  same  direction  and  on  the  same  im- 
portant functions,  each  intensifies  or  increases  the  effect  of  the 
others.  If  any  one  doubts  this,  let  him  again  refer  to  the  facts 
adduced  in  the  address  of  Dr.  H.  C.  Wood,  on  Anaesthesia  be- 
fore the  International  Medical  Congress  at  Berlin,  in  1890. 

"  Notwithstanding  these  well-established  facts,  both  ether  and 
alcohol  continue  to  be  among  the  first  remedies  resorted  to, 
not  only  for  counteracting  the  effects  of  chloroform,  but  of 
threatened  respiratory  and  cardiac  failure  from  pneumonia, 
diphtheria,  or  any  other  cause.  Almost  every  alternate  number 
of  the  leading  medical  journals,  both  of  this  country  and  Eng- 
402 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  403 

land,  contain  reports  of  deaths  from  chloroform  ;  and  in  nine 
cases  out  of  ten,  among  the  first  remedies  used  for  resuscita- 
tion, are  a  hypodermic  injection  of  ether  and  an  enema  of 
whisky  or  brandy. 

"  In  one  case  reported  in  the  British  Medical  Journal  a  year 
or  two  since,  in  which  excessive  anaesthesia  was  induced  by 
the  use  of  the  mixed  anaesthetic  of  alcohol,  ether,  and  chloro- 
form, the  first  remedy  used  was  a  hypodermic  injection  of 
ether,  and  the  next  an  enema  of  brandy.  Of  course  the  patient 
did  not  revive.  Only  last  month,  three  successive  numbers  of 
the  British  Journal  contained  each  a  report  of  a  case  of  death 
from  chloroform,  and  in  every  case  the  inevitable  hypodermic 
injection  of  ether  was  given.  The  case  related  in  the  Journal 
for  Oct.  21,  1893,  was  that  of  a  laboring  man  who  met  with  a 
severe  mechanical  injury,  dislocating  the  femur  at  the  hip.  He 
was  taken  to  the  hospital,  given  '  stimulants,'  i.  e.,  brandy  or 
whisky,  and  at  the  end  of  three  hours  was  put  on  the  operating 
table,  and  chloroform  administered.  Being  already  somewhat 
under  the  influence  of  the  alcoholic  anaesthetic,  he  passed 
readily  under  the  complete  effect  of  chloroform  in  *  five  min- 
utes,' and  efforts  to  reduce  the  dislocation  were  begun,  but  had 
proceeded  only  '  five  minutes,'  when  both  circulation  and  respi- 
ration suddenly  stopped.  Then,  as  if  by  mere  force  of  habit, 
followed  the  hypodermic  injection  of  ether.  An  alcoholic  anes- 
thetic at  the  beginning ,  chlorofor7)i  in  the  middle,  and  ether 
at  the  end,  makes  death  about  as  sure  as  it  would  be  from  a 
pistol  ball  through  the  ventricles  of  the  heart. 

"  Many  surgeons  have  been  in  the  habit  of  giving  patients  a 
liberal  dose  of  alcoholic  drink  a  little  before  administering 
chloroform  as  an  anaesthetic,  under  the  plea  that  it  lessened  the 
danger  of  heart  failure.  The  apparent  result  is  that  the  patients 
pass  more  readily  and  quietly  into  the  anaesthetic  state  ;  but  as 
the  alcohol  continues  to  be  absorbed  from  the  stomach  after  the 
chloroform  anaesthesia  is  complete,  it  adds  just  so  much  to  the 
danger  of  sudden  stoppage  of  respiration.     And  we  have  rea- 


404  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

son  to  believe  that  many  lives  have  been  lost  from  this  cause 
when  only  minimum  quantities  of  chloroform  had  been  used, 
and  with  the  utmost  caution. 

"  Many  years  since  a  man  was  brought  into  the  Mercy  Hos- 
pital with  a  dislocation  at  the  shoulder.  Being  enough  under 
the  influence  of  alcohol  to  make  him  obstreperous,  the  surgeon, 
thinking  to  quiet  him  and  make  the  seduction  easier,  adminis- 
tered an  anaesthetic.  The  inhalation  had  proceeded  only  far 
enough  to  begin  to  develop  its  effects,  when  both  respiration 
and  circulation  stopped,  and  the  most  active  efforts  to  revive 
the  patient  failed. 

"  Therapeutic  investigations,  both  clinical  and  experimental, 
show  that  digitalis  is  the  most  direct  and  reliable  cardiac  and 
vasomotor  tonic,  and  strychnine  the  most  efficient  respiratory- 
stimulant  ;  and  if  these  were  judiciously  used  in  all  cases  of 
cardiac,  vasomotor  and  respiratory  weakness  or  failure,  to  the 
entire  exclusion  of  alcohol,  ether  or  articles  of  the  same  class, 
it  would  save  many  lives  annually." 

R.  Dubois,  in  1883,  by  direct  experimenting  upon 
animals,  found  that  the  presence  of  alcohol  in  the 
blood  much  intensified  the  action  of  chloroform, 
and  thereby  rendered  a  much  smaller  dose  fatal. 

Prof.  H.  C.  Wood,  in  his  address  on  Anaesthesia, 
to  the  Tenth  International  Medical  Congress,  1890, 
said : — 

"  In  my  own  experiments  with  alcohol,  an  eighty  per  cent, 
fluid  was  used,  largely  diluted  with  water.  The  amount  in- 
jected into  the  jugular  vein  varied  in  the  different  experiments 
from  5  to  20  c.  c. ;  and  in  no  case  have  I  been  able  to  detect 
any  increase  in  the  size  of  the  pulse  or  in  the  arterial  pressure 
produced  by  alcohol,  when  the  heart  was  failing  during  ad- 
vanced chloroform  anaesthesia.     On  the  other  hand,  on  several 


ALCOHOL  AS   A  MEDICINE.  40$ 

occasions,  the  larger  amounts  of  alcohol  apparently  greatly  in- 
creased the  rapidity  of  the  fall  of  arterial  pressure,  and  aided 
materially  in  extinguishing  the  pulse." 

In  the  closing  paragraph  of  the  same  address,  Dr. 
Wood  said,  in  regard  to  the  management  of  acci- 
dents during  anaesthesia  : — 

u  Avoid  the  use  of  all  drugs  except  strychnine,  digitalis  and 
ammonia.  *****  tjsg  artificial  forced  respiration  promptly, 
and  in  protracted  cases  employ  external  warmth  and  stimula- 
tion of  the  surface  by  the  dry  electric  brush,  etc. ;  and  remem- 
ber that  some  at  least,  and  perhaps  many,  of  the  deaths  which 
have  been  set  down  as  due  to  chloroform  and  ether,  have  been 
produced  by  the  alcohol  which  has  been  given  for  the  relief  of 
the  patient." 

"  We  have  several  times  invited  attention  to  the  very  com- 
mon practice  of  giving  hypodermic  injections  of  ether  and 
rectal  injections  of  alcohol  to  revive  patients  already  asphyxi- 
ated with  chloroform  ;  and  have  pointed  to  the  clear  experi- 
mental proof  that  both  ether  and  alcohol  directly  increase  the 
effects  of  the  chloroform  and  thereby  increase  the  certainty  of 
death  in  every  case  in  which  they  are  used.  In  a  recent  num- 
ber of  the  Bulletin  of-  the  Johns  Hopkins  Hospital,  an  interest- 
ing case  of  death  under  anaesthesia  is  related,  in  which  it  was 
stated  that  on  account  of  the  dislike  of  the  patient  for  inhaling 
ether,  the  inhalation  was  commenced  with  chloroform  and 
when  so  far  under  its  influence  as  to  prevent  her  noticing  the 
change,  ether  was  substituted  and  carried  to  complete  anaes- 
thesia without  the  slightest  interruption.  It  was  particularly 
stated  that  on  substituting  ether  for  the  chloroform,  no  appreci- 
able change  could  be  detected  in  either  the  respiration  or  the 
circulation  of  the  patient.  And  the  writer  further  remarked 
that  he  had  many  times  made  the  same  change  in  administer- 
ing anaesthetics  to  patients  who  were  opposed  to  inhaling  ether 
with  the  same  uniform  continuance  or  increase  of  the  anass- 


406  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

thetic  effect.  Do  we  need  any  better  proof  that  giving  one 
anaesthetic  to  revive  a  patient  from  the  excessive  effects  of 
another  is  very  nearly  to  the  climax  of  absurdity  ?  " — A.  M.  T. 
A.  Quarterly. 

I  Beer  Compared  With  Other  Alcoholics  :— "  For  some 
years  a  decided  inclination  has  been  apparent  all  over  the  coun- 
try to  give  up  the  use  of  whisky  and  other  strong  alcohols,  using 
as  a  substitute  beer  and  other  compounds.  This  is  evidently 
founded  on  the  idea  that  beer  is  not  harmful,  and  contains  a 
large  amount  of  nutriment  ;  also  that  bitters  may  have  some 
medical  quality  which  will  neutralize  the  alcohol  which  it  con- 
ceals, etc.  These  theories  are  without  confirmation  in  the  ob- 
servation of  physicians.  The  use  of  beer  is  found  to  produce  a 
species  of  degeneration  of  all  the  organs ;  profound  and  decep- 
tive fatty  deposits,  diminished  circulation,  conditions  of  conges- 
tion and  perversion  of  functional  activities,  local  inflammations 
of  both  the  liver  and  kidneys,  are  constantly  present.  Intellec- 
tually a  stupor,  amounting  almost  to  paralysis,  arrests  the  rea- 
son, changing  all  the  higher  faculties  into  a  mere  animalism, 
sensual,  selfish,  sluggish,  varied  only  with  paroxysms  of  anger 
that  are  senseless  and  brutal.  In  appearance  the  beer-drinker 
may  be  the  picture  of  health,  but  in  reality  he  is  most  incapable 
of  resisting  disease.  A  slight  injury,  a  severe  cold  or  a  shock 
to  the  body  or  mind,  will  commonly  provoke  acute  disease  end- 
ing fatally.     Compared  with  inebriates  who  use  different  kinds  of 

l  alcohol,  he  is  more  incurable  and  more  generally  diseased.  The 
constant  use  of  beer  everyday  gives  the  system  no  recuperation, 
but  steadily  lowers  the  vital  forces.  It  is  our  observation  that 
beer  drinking  in  this  country  produces  the  very  lowest  kind  of 
inebriety,  closely  allied  to  criminal  insanity. 

*'  The  most  dangerous  class  of  ruffians  in  our  large  cities  are 

beer  drinkers.     Recourse  to  beer  as  a  substitute  for  other  forms 

of  alcohol  merely  increases  the  danger  and  fatality." — Scientific 

American. 

"  The  New  York  hospital  surgeons  have  promulgated  a  fact 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  407 

which,  coming  from  such  a  source,  should  be  a  warning  to  beer 
drinkers.  Their  attention  has  been  called  to  the  large  number 
of  bartenders  who  have  lost  fingers  from  both  hands  within  the 
past  few  years.  An  employee  of  a  Bowery  concert  hall  lost 
three  fingers  from  his  right  hand,  two  from  his  left,  and  the 
physicians  decided  that  they  became  rotted  off  by  the  beer 
which  he  handled.  The  acids  and  the  resin  in  the  beer  are  said 
to  be  the  cause.  One  bartender  said  he  knew  of  several  cases 
where  those  who  handle  beer  habitually  had  lost  the  use  of  several 
fingers  and  finally  the  use  of  both  hands.  He  said  :  '  I  know, 
and  every  other  bartender  knows,  that  it  is  impossible  to  keep  a 
good  pair  of  shoes  behind  the  bar.  Beer  will  rot  leather  as 
rapidly  almost  as  acid  will  rot  into  iron.  If  I  were  a  temper- 
ance orator,  I'd  ask  what  must  beer  do  to  men's  stomachs  if 
it  rots  the  fingers  and  sole  leather  ?  I'm  here  to  sell  it,  but  I 
won't  drink  it — not  much.'" — A.  M.  T.  A.  Quarterly. 

Spirits  Deleterious  to  the  Voice  : — "  Mr.  Kuhe,  the 
veteran  pianist  and  concert  giver,  has  been  giving  in  his  remi- 
niscences some  observations  on  the  habits  of  singers  with  regard 
to  stimulants.  Formerly  all  singers  had,  in  obedience  to  medi- 
cal advice,  to  indulge  greatly  in  stout  and  plenty  of  port  for  the 
voice ;  stimulants  were  in  fact  ordered  lavishly.  Nowadays  it 
is  an  accepted  article  of  belief  that  spirits  harden  the  tone  ;  port 
is  out  of  date,  and  lemons  have  become  the  fashion  for  those 
who  wish  to  preserve  their  purity  of  intonation  and  keep  their 
power  of  sustaining  high  notes." — The  Musical  Courier. 

Alcohol  and  Brain  Work  : — "  It  is  a  general  impression 
that  alcohol  produces  temporary  ability  for  increased  activity. 
Dr.  Lauder  Brunton  asserts  that  '  the  influence  of  alcohol 
upon  physical  processes  is  curious,  for  while  it  renders  them 
much  slower,  the  individual  under  its  influence  believes  them  to 
be  much  quicker  than  usual.'  The  same  fact  is  true  of  all 
stimulants.  They  give  the  individual  the  impression  of  greater 
vigor  and  strength,  but  this  is  simply  a  deception. 

Escaped  Drowning  to  be  Killed  by  Brandy  :— "  An 


408  ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE. 

inquest  was  held  at  Hastings  last  week  on  the  body  of  a  boy 
named  Binsted,  aged  four  years.  The  little  lad  fell  into  the 
sea,  and  on  being  rescued  was  rubbed  down  and  put  to  bed. 
Hot  milk  was  given  to  him  containing  brandy,  which,  however 
was  not  measured  by  his  father.  The  boy  soon  afterwards 
died,  and  a  local  doctor  who  was  called  in  found  that  the  cause 
of  death  was  alcoholic  poisoning  through  the  dose  of  brandy 
being  too  great.  The  doctor  found  by  the  glass  that  three 
tablespoonfuls  had  been  given.  The  jury  returned  a  verdict  of 
'  Death  through  an  overdose  of  brandy  given  in  error.'  " — Hos- 
pital Gazette. 

Any  student  of  contemporary  history  is  well 
aware  of  the  fact  that  the  despised  Turk  has  ex- 
hibited remarkable  soldierly  qualities  both  in  the  war 
with  Russia  and  in  the  more  recent  Greek  war.  The 
following  quotation  from  Sir  Charles  E.  Ryan,  M. 
D.,  F.  R.  C.  S.  I.,  who  served  as  a  surgeon  in  the 
Turkish  army,  at  Plevna  and  Erzeroum,  may  throw 
some  light  upon  the  subject.  Dr.  Ryan  says  in  his 
recently  published  book  : — 

"  In  all  my  surgical  experience  I  have  never  known  men  to 
exhibit  such  fortitude  under  intense  agony  as  these  Turkish 
soldiers,  nor  have  I  ever  met  patients  who  recovered  from  such 
terrible  injuries  in  the  remarkable  way  that  these  men  did. 
They  wrere  magnificent  material  for  a  surgeon  to  work  on — men 
of  splendid  physique,  unimpaired  by  intemperances  or  any 
excesses.  Occasionally  one  found  isolated  cases  of  intemper- 
ance among  the  higher  officers  in  the  Turkish  army  ;  but  I  never 
saw  a  private  soldier  under  the  influence  of  liquor  during  the 
whole  time  I  was  in  the  country.  *****  \t  was  impossible 
to  get  them  to  touch  alcohol,  even  as  medicine." 

On  the  other  hand,  it  ought  to  be    remembered 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  409 

that  the  Greeks,  who  in  their  lack  of  courage  and 
endurance,  so  bitterly  disappointed  their  friends, 
went  into  the  opening  battles  of  their  disastrous 
war  plentifully  supplied  with  brandy. 

LIFE   INSURANCE  COMPANIES  AND   BEER. 

"  We  especially  call  attention  to  another  fact.  Life  insurance 
companies  have  no  sentiment.  They  are  as  cold-blooded  as 
banks.  They  do  business  upon  strictly  business  principles. 
Their  business  is  one  based  purely  upon  experience  from  which 
certain  inexorable  rules  have  been  established.  A  life  insur- 
ance company  will  not  insure  the  life  of  a  confirmed  beer- 
dri?iker.  Why  ?  Because  it  is  a  certain  fact,  as  certain  as 
anything  can  be,  that  the  beer-drinker  can  not  live  long  enough 
to  ?nake  i7isurance  profitable  to  them.  The  '  expectation  '  of 
life  in  a  beer-drinkter  is  cut  short  by  his  appetite.  No  life  insur- 
ance company  is  going  to  take  a  risk  upon  a  body  into  which  is 
being  poured  every  day  the  seeds  of  disease,  any  more  than  a 
marine  insurance  company  is  going  to  take  a  risk  upon  a  rotten 
hulk.  No  life  insurance  company  is  going  to  take  a  risk  upon 
a  man  who  is  inviting  Bright's  disease  of  the  kidneys,  inflam- 
matory rheumatism,  congestion  of  the  liver  and  enlargement  of 
the  kidneys,  all  of  which  are  as  certain  to  come  to  him  as  he  is 
to  persevere  in  beer.  And  the  beer-drinker,  as  a  rule,  does  per- 
severe till  death  stops  his  contributions  to  brewers. 

"  These  institutions  dread  beer  more  than  they  do  whisky, 
for  its  effect  upon  the  system  is  even  worse.  A  non-beer- 
drinker  at  forty  is  considered  a  good  risk — a  beer-drinker  at 
that  age  can  get  no  insurance  at  all.  As  we  said,  there  is  no 
sentiment  in  life  insurance  companies.  They  act  entirely  upon 
facts,  which  are  the  result  of  experience.  Their  figures  never 
lie. 

"The  president  of  the  Connecticut  Mutual  Life  Insurance 
Company,  one  of  the  oldest  in  the  country,  has  for  years  been 


410  ALCOHOL  AS  A    MEDICINE. 

investigating  the  relation  of  beer-drinking  to  longevity.  His 
object  was  that  he  might  solve  the  problem  whether  beer  pro- 
motes vitality  or  otherwise ;  in  other  words,  to  know  whether 
beer-drinkers  are  desirable  risks  to  a  life  insurance  company. 
We  give  his  conclusions.  He  declared,  as  the  result  of  a  series 
of  observations  carried  on  among  a  selected  group  of  persons 
who  were  habitual  drinkers  of  beer  that  although  for  two  or 
three  years  there  was  nothing  remarkable,  yet  presently  death 
began  to  strike,  and  then  the  mortality  became  astounding  and 
uniform  in  its  manifestations.  There  was  no  mistaking  it ;  the 
history  was  almost  invariable  ;  robust,  apparent  health,  full  mus- 
cles, a  fair  outside,  increasing  weight,  florid  faces  ;  then  a  touch 
of  cold,  or  a  sniff  of  malaria,  and  instantly  some  acute  disease, 
with  almost  invariable  typhoid  symptoms,  was  in  violent  action, 
and  ten  days  or  less  ended  it. 

"  It  was  as  if  the  system  had  been  kept  fair  on  the  outside, 
while  within  it  was  eaten  to  a  shell ;  and  at  the  first  touch  of 
disease  there  was  utter  collapse ;  every  fibre  was  poisoned  and 
weak.  And  this,  in  its  main  features,  varying  in  degree,  has 
been  his  observation  in  beer-drinking  everywhere.  It  is  pecu- 
liarly deceptive  at  first ;  it  is  thoroughly  destructive  at  the  last." 
—  The  Toledo  Blade. 

Wilhelmina  Lemonade: — Take  four  or  five 
rough-skinned  oranges  (according  to  size)  and  two 
pounds  of  sugar,  in  big  lumps.  After  having  cleaned 
the  oranges,  rub  the  sugar  with  them,  till  the 
oranges  are  quite  white — the  sugar  yellow.  Place 
the  sugar  in  a  big  earthernware  pan  or  jar,  and  add 
three  pints  of  cold  water.  Then  cover  it  up  and  let 
it  stand  two  days,  stirring  it  occasionally  to  help  the 
melting.  Now  take  two  ounces  of  citric  acid,  dis- 
solved in  a  little  boiling  water,  and  add  it  to  the 
syrup,  stirring  the  whole.     Then  strain  the  whole 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  41 1 

through  a  fine  sieve,  covered  with  muslin,  so  that  it 
becomes  perfectly  clear.  In  well-corked  bottles  it 
will  keep  for  more  than  a  year.  Mix  one-third  of 
the  lemonade  with  two-thirds  water.  [Instead  of 
the  oranges  five  or  six  lemons  may  be  used.] 

Beverages  for  the  Sick: — Unfermented  grape 
juice.  Hot  milk.  Egg  cream,  made  as  follows: 
Beat  the  white  and  yolk  separately,  add  milk  and 
sugar,  and  stir  well,  flavor  to  suit  taste.  Egg  lemon- 
ade— beat  yolk  and  sugar  thoroughly,  add  lemon 
and  water,  shake  well,  then  add  white,  beaten  stiff. 
Barley  water,  made  by  boiling  pearl  barley  five  or 
six  hours,  and  straining  the  water  from  it ;  add  milk 
or  cream  if  wished.  These  are  used  in  the  National 
Temperance  Hospital  of  Chicago. 

Baths  : — "  If  all  people  understood  the  value  of  water  to  cool, 
cleanse,  invigorate  and  sustain  life,  and  how  to  use  it,  and 
would  use  it,  one-half  of  all  the  afflictions  from  disease  would  be 
removed ;  and  the  other  half  might  be  banished  if  all  the  people 
understood  how  and  what  to  eat,  how  to  breathe,  and  the  ne- 
cessity of  daily  vigorous  exercise.  A  daily  towel  bath  will  do 
more  to  counteract  disease,  and  restore  the  body  to  its  normal 
'  health  condition,  than  any  other  method  or  remedy  yet  discov- 
ered. After  the  bath,  the  body  should  be  thoroughly  rubbed 
with  a  crash  or  Turkish  towel.  Rub  until  a  warm  glow  is  pro- 
duced. This  bath  is  a  fine  tonic  if  taken  upon  rising  in  the 
morning." 

Hot  Water  as  a  Medicine  :— "  One  is  never,"  says  a 
physician,  "far  from  a  pretty  good  medicine  chest  with  hot 
water  at  hand.  It  is  a  most  useful  assistant  to  the  mother  of  a 
family  of  small  children,  who  is  frightened  often  to  find  herself 
confronted  by  a  sudden  illness  of  one  of  her  flock,  without  her 


412  ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE. 

usual  dependence — the  family  doctor.  If  the  baby  has  croup 
fold  a  strip  of  flannel  or  a  soft  napkin  lengthwise,  dip  into  very 
hot  water,  and  apply  to  the  child's  throat.  Repeat  and  con- 
tinue the  application  till  relief  is  had,  which  will  be  almost  at 
once.  For  toothache,  or  colic,  or  a  threatened  lung  congestion, 
the  hot-water  treatment  will  be  found  promptly  efficacious  if 
resorted  to.  Nature  needs  only  a  little  assistance  at  the  first 
sign  of  trouble  to  rally  quickly  in  the  average  healthy  child,  and 
often  hot  water  is  all  that  is  wanted." 

Alcohol  Injurious  to  the  Insane: — Dr. 
Richard  Maurice  Bucke,  whose  valuable  paper  on 
"  The  Evolution  of  the  Mind  "  appeared  in  the  De- 
cember number  of  the  Journal  of  Hygiene,  in  a  recent 
report  of  the  Asylum  for  the  Insane  in  London, 
Canada,  makes  the  following  statement  concerning 
the  use  of  alcohol  in  the  institution  over  which 
he  presides : — 

"  As  we  have  given  up  the  use  of  alcohol,  we  have  needed 
and  used  less  opium  and  chloral ;  and  as  we  have  discontinued 
the  use  of  alcohol,  opium  and  chloral,  we  have  needed  and 
used  less  seclusion  and  restraint.  I  have,  during  the  year 
just  closed,  carefully  watched  the  effect  of  the  alcohol  given, 
and  the  progress  of  cases  where,  in  former  years,  it  would  have 
been  given,  and  I  am  morally  certain  that  the  alcohol  used 
during  the  past  year  did  no  good.  With  humiliation  I  am 
forced  to  admit  that  in  the  recent  past  my  noble  profession  has 
been  to  an  alarming  extent,  and  is  still  too  much  so,  guilty  of 
producing  many  drunkards  in  the  land,  directly  or  indirectly,  by 
the  reckless  and  wholesale  manner  in  which  so  many  of  its 
members  have  prescribed  alcoholic  stimulants  in  their  daily 
practice  for  all  the  aches  and  pains,  coughs  and  colds,  inflam- 
mations and  consumptions,  fevers  and  chills,  at  the  hour  of 
birth  and  at  the  time  of  death,  and  all  intermediate  points  of 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  413 

life,  to  induce  sleep  and  to  promote  wakefulness,  and  for  all 
real  or  imaginary  ills." 

Tobacco  and  the  Eyesight  :— "  Prof.  Craddock  says 
that  tobacco  has  a  bad  effect  upon  the  sight,  and  a  distinct  dis- 
ease of  the  eye  is  attributed  to  its  immoderate  use.  Many 
cases  in  which  complete  loss  of  sight  has  occurred,  and  which 
were  formerly  regarded  as  hopeless,  are  now  known  to  be  cura- 
ble by  making  the  patient  abstain  from  tobacco.  These  pa- 
tients almost  invariably  at  first  have  color  blindness,  taking  red 
to  be  brown  or  black,  and  green  to  be  light  blue  or  orange.  In 
nearly  every  case,  the  pupils  are  much  contracted,  in  some 
cases  to  such  an  extent  that  the  patient  is  unable  to  move  about 
without  assistance.  One  such  man  admitted  that  he  had 
usually  smoked  from  twenty  to  thirty  cigars  a  day.  He  con- 
sented to  give  up  smoking  altogether,  and  his  sight  was  fully 
restored  in  three  and  a  half  months.  It  has  been  found  that 
chewing  is  much  worse  than  smoking  in  its  effects  upon  the 
eyesight,  probably  for  the  simple  reason  that  more  of  the 
poison  is  thereby  absorbed.  The  condition  found  in  the  eye  in 
the  early  stages  is  that  of  extreme  congestion  only ;  but  this, 
unless  remedied  at  once,  leads  to  gradually  increasing  disease 
of  the»optic  nerve,  and  then,  of  course,  blindness  is  absolute 
and  beyond  remedy.  It  is,  therefore,  evident  that,  to  be  of  any 
value,  the  treatment  of  disease  of  the  eye  due  to  excessive 
smoking  must  be  immediate,  or  it  will  probably  be  useless." — 
Journal  of  Inebriety. 

"  Dr.  Isaac  Fellows  was  for  many  years  a  prominent  phy- 
sician in  Los  Angeles.  A  temperance  man,  he  was  persuaded 
by  an  old  physician  whom  he  loved  to  try  for  a  year  substituting 
alcohol  in  drop  doses  in  water  for  such  patients  as  demanded 
alcoholic  stimulants.  He  was  delighted  with  the  result. 
When  his  patients  found  they  could  not  have  wine,  beer  or 
brandy  under  the  guise  of  medicine,  but  must  take  it  in  drop 
doses  in  water,  as  they  did  their  other  medicines,  they  speedily 
learned  to  do  without  '  a  stimulant.' " — Pacific  Ensign. 


414  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

Alcohol  and  the  Death-Rate  :— "We  have  frequently 
had  occasion  to  point  out  the  extraordinary  and  unwarranted 
misuse  of  a  table  embodied  in  the  report  of  the  British  Medical 
Association's  '  Inquiry  into  the  connection  of  diseases  with  hab- 
its of  intemperance,'  which  was  presented  at  the  Dublin  meeting 
in  1887.  Our  readers  will  remember  that  the  table  in  question 
showed  the  average  age  at  death  among  4,234  patients  reported 
on,  to  have  been  :  Of  abstainers  51  years  and  22  days,  and  of  the 
decidedly  intemperate  52  years  and  14  days.  These  figures,  with 
others,  have  been  widely  construed  as  proving  that '  teetotalism 
is  dangerous  to  life.'  Yet  the  report  contained  the  distinct  state- 
ment that  from  these  returns  no  conclusion  could  be  formed  as 
to  the  relative  duration  of  life  of  abstainers  and  habitually  tem- 
perate drinkers  of  alcoholic  liquors.  Though  the  fallacy  referred 
to  has  been  exposed  again  and  again  in  the  British  Medical  Jour- 
nal by  the  chairman  of  the  Committee  and  of  the  Association's 
Inebriates  Legislation  Committee,  and  by  other  authorities,  the 
misuse  and  misinterpretation  are  still  being  persisted  in.  Mr. 
James  Whyte  has  addressed  to  us  a  letter  once  more  exposing 
the  fallacy  on  which  this  misrepresentation  is  based.  The  num- 
ber of  living  abstainers  over  25  years  of  age  is  much  less  than 
the  number  of  living  non-abstainers,  abstinence  having  pro- 
gressed most  largely  in  the  young,  so  that  the  average  age  of  ab- 
stainers at  death  must  be  less.  The  Sceptre  Life  Office  found 
that  their  abstaining  insurers  were  several  years  younger  than 
their  non-abstaining  insurers.  At  25  the  death-rate  showed  a 
difference  in  favor  of  Rechabites  of  0.64.  The  general  Recha- 
bite  death-rate  has  been  7.50  per  1,000,  against  24  per  1,000 
among  general  males.  Other  tables  embodied  in  the  report 
confirm  the  accuracy  of  this  explanation.  When  deaths  under 
30  were  excluded,  the  average  age  of  the  abstainers  at  death  was 
about  four  years  more  than  that  of  the  decidedly  intemperate. 
When  all  deaths  under  40  were  excluded,  the  average  age  of 
the  teetotalers  was  one  year  greater  than  that  of  the  free  drink- 
ers, and  more  than  five  years  greater  than  that  of  the  intemper- 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  415 

ate.  In  protesting  most  strongely  against  this  unfounded  misrep- 
resentation of  the  report  of  the  inquiry,  we  append  one  of  the 
conclusions  of  the  Committee — that#habitual  indulgence  in  alco- 
holic liquors,  beyond  the  most  moderate  amounts,  has  a  distinct 
tendency  to  shorten  life,  the  average  shortening  being  roughly 
proportionate  to  the  degree  of  indulgence." — British  Medical 
Journal. 

Medical  Puffs  of  Whisky  and  Other  Alcoholics  : — 
"  Every  medical  man  knows  how  he  is  pestered  with  advertis- 
ing circulars  of  so-and-so's  genuine  whisky,  and  what-do-you- 
call-em's  extra  stout,  to  say  nothing  of  the  tempting  offers  of 
wines  and  spirits  on  sale  with  special  discounts  to  medical  men. 
Other  enterprising  firms  send  samples  or  offer  to  send  them 
with  the  implied  understanding  that  a  testimonial  is  to  be  given, 
or  that  at  least  the  wares  in  question  will  be  recommended  to 
patients.  Even  our  medical  papers  have  not  always  been  in- 
corruptible. We  have  little  expectation  ourselves  of  being  fav- 
ored with  an  offer  of  full-page  advertisements  of  extraordinary 
wines  and  spirits.  We  are  not  prepared  to  recommend  them 
except  as  vermin  killers.  Nor  are  we  prepared  to  remain  silent 
as  to  their  alleged  virtues.  The  whole  system  of  testimonials 
is  a  huge  imposture.  Granted  that  the  sample  is  all  that  it  is 
described  as  being,  who  can  guarantee  that  what  is  served  to- 
the  public  in  the  face  of  severe  competition  will  be  up  to  the 
sample  ? 

"But  there  is  another  and  a  sadder  view  of  the  case.  We 
cannot  believe  that  all  the  eulogies  of  all  the  medical  trumpeters 
of  the  wines  and  the  spirits  are  wilfully  false  or  even  exagger- 
ated. It  is  a  lamentable  fact  that  a  vast  number  of  doctors 
have  a  genuine  faith  in  the  value  and  virtue  of  these  pernicious 
drinks.  It  is  not  simply  a  question  of  medicinal  use,  though 
even  on  that  we  should  join  issue.  These  things  are  vaunted 
as  valuable  for  the  promotion  of  health  in  spite  of  all  the  accu- 
mulating evidence  to  the  contrary.  We  wish  that  these  doctors 
would  carefully  study  this  evidence.     The  pity  of  it  is   that  the 


416  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE, 

very  worst  offenders  are  the  least  likely  to  study  it.  We  sup- 
pose they  must  die  out,  and  be  replaced  by  men  less  prejudiced 
and  bound  by  the  chain  of  alcoholic  habit.  We  can  only  re- 
gret that  they  should  be  doing  so  much  harm  in  fastening  the 
fetters  of  drink  on  other  people,  and  hindering  their  emancipa- 
tion from  the  evil  customs  which  play  havoc  amongst  us." — 
Medical  Pioneer. 

Alcohol  and  Children  :— "  Parents  often  labor  under  the 
delusion  that  alcoholic  drinks  are  good  for  children  and  act  as 
tonics.  Mothers  will  put  drops  of  brandy  into  the  milk  with 
which  their  children  are  fed,  increasing  the  quantity  with  the  age 
of  the  recipient.  In  the  illness  of  children  the  same  is  given  to 
meet  disturbances  of  the  stomach  or  to  increase  growth  and 
development,  without  taking  the  advice  of  any  medical  man  as 
to  the  wisdom  of  the  practice.  This  is  all  erroneous.  The 
excitement  of  the  central  nervous  system  under  alcohol,  excite- 
ment which  seems  to  be  a  relief  to  weariness  and  to  give 
strength,  is  nothing  more  than  temporary  at  best,  and  injurious, 
causing  in  fact  symptoms  of  alcoholic  poisoning,  abnormal  ex- 
citement, ending,  in  extreme  cases,  in  convulsions  succeeded  by 
exhaustion  of  body  and  mind,  and  inducing  a  kind  of  paralysis. 
Many  cases  of  stomach  and  gastric  catarrh  in  children  followed 
by  emaciation  and  debility  are  due  to  the  early  administration 
of  alcoholic  drinks  ;  and  impediment  of  growth  from  the  same 
cause  is  thereby  produced.  The  most  serious  derangement  is 
that  of  the  nervous  system,  and  the  development  in  the  young, 
under  the  influence  of  alcohol,  of  what  is  known  as  nervous- 
ness, to  which  is  added  the  moral  paralysis  with  which  the 
habit  of  alcoholic  drinking  smites  its  victims  in  the  very  spring- 
time of  life." — Prof.  Demme,  of  Berne,  Switzerland. 

"  The  action  of  the  New  York  Board  of  Health,  in  recom- 
mending to  tenement  house  parents,  that  on  the  hottest  days  of 
summer  a  few  drops  of  whisky  be  added  to  the  water  or  food  of 
their  infants,  has  received  a  strong  protest  and  rebuke  in  a 
meeting   at  Prohibition  Park,  where  the    opinions  of  eminent 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  417 

physicians,  collected  by  the  Voice,  were  read,  condemning  such 
a  course.     A  resolution  of  protest  was  also  adopted." — Set. 

"  For  nineteen  years  we  lived  with  a  physician  whose  success 
may  be  estimated  from  this  one  item  :  He  had  between  1,600 
and  1,700  labor  cases,  and  never  once  lost  the  mother,  and  only 
twice  the  child,  and  what  seems  still  more  remarkable  never 
used  instruments.  When  other  physicians,  as  often  happened, 
would  come  to  him  to  know  how  he  did  it,  he  always  answered, 
*  A  woman  will  do  anything  if  you  only  encourage  her.'  Nor 
was  obstetrics  his  specialty — he  had  none. 

"  In  a  fifteen  years'  practice  in  Chicago  and  New  York,  where 
these  diseases  are  so  very  fatal,  and  he  was  much  sought  after 
to  treat  them,  he  did  not  lose  a  case  of  scarlet  fever,  diphtheria 
or  cholera  infantum  which  he  managed  himself,  and  saved 
many  a  one  where  he  was  called  in  consultation,  or  after  some 
other  physician.  Now  when  such  a  man  after  an  experience 
more  than  fifty  years  long  and  as  wide  as  the  continent,  gives  it 
as  his  unqualified  opinion  that  wines,  beers,  liquors  of  every 
kind,  alcohol  itself,  are  not  medicines  and  should  never  be  used 
as  such,  for  scientific  reasons,  not  to  mention  moral,  is  not 
his  opinion  entitled  to  a  hearing  ?  Isn't  it  probable  it  weighs 
more  than  the  doctor's  you  were  just  quoting  ?  Is  it  too  great 
a  risk  to  act  upon  it  ?  " — Pacific  Ensign. 

"  A  lady,  Mrs.  A.,  tenderly  nurtured,  refined,  cultured,  mov- 
ing in  an  influential  position,  belonged  to  a  family  in  whom  the 
tendency  to  intemperance  existed.  Realizing  the  danger,  she, 
for  seven  years  of  her  married  life,  adhered  to  total  abstinence. 
Illness  came,  and  the  doctor  ordered  wine  ;  and  her  husband, 
deaf  to  her  arguments,  insisted  on  her  taking  it.  She  fell  into 
habits  of  intemperance.  Her  husband  died,  and  for  a  time  she 
pulled  up  and  trained  as  a  hospital  nurse  ;  but  temptation  pre- 
vailed, and  she  fell  from  bad  to  worse.  Loving  hands  received 
her  time  after  time,  and  at  last  placed  her  in  an  Inebriate 
Home.  For  a  short  time  she  did  well,  but  soon  became  un- 
manageable.    After  another   desperate  period   she  entered  a 


41 8  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

second  home,  but  after  leaving  she  yielded  again,  was  twice  ih 
prison,  and  fell  into  the  lowest  degradation  and  utter  ruin, 
surely  deserving  our  deepest  pity.  Her  doctor  and  her  husband 
had  persisted  in  working  her  fall  in  spite  of  her  own  strongest 
convictions. ' ' — Selected. 

They  did  not  Die.— "  Dr.  Lord  of  Pasadena  suffered 
from  rheumatism  of  the  heart  for  more  than  half  of  a  long  life- 
time. No  doctor  ever  felt  his  pulse  (which  intermitted)  with- 
out exclaiming,  «  Why,  doctor,  you  have  no  business  to  be  alive 
with  such  a  pulse,'— or  something  similar.  For  nineteen  years 
his  wife  never  retired  without  having  at  least  one  medicine  she 
could  put  her  hand  on  in  the  dark,  the  ammonia  bottle  within 
reach,  the  electric  battery  ready  to  start  like  a  fire-engine,  and 
preparations  for  heating  water  in  less  than  no  time.  His  acute 
attacks  usually  came  in  the  night— an  uninterrupted  night's 
sleep  was  something  unknown  to  either  the  doctor  or  his  wife 
in  all  these  years. 

"  They  lived  in  sight  of  an  open  grave,  and  seldom  a  week 
passed  when  it  did  not  seem  as  if  death  had  actually  occurred. 
If  ever  a  case  called  for  alcoholic  stimulants  this  one  did. 
But  none  were  ever  administered,  none  were  ever  kept  in  the 
house.  The  doctor's  standing  orders  were  :  '  If  all  the  doc- 
tors in  the  country  order  you  to  give  me  liquor,  and  say  my 
life  depends  upon  it,  don't  do  it.  Tell  them  I  know  more  about 
it  than  they  do.  It  won't  save  my  life ;  it  will  only  lessen  what 
little  chance  I  have.'  All  who  knew  about  this  case,  and  hun- 
dreds did,  were  driven  to  the  conclusion  that  if  these  two  peo- 
ple, one  in  this  condition  and  the  other  feeble,  could  live  all 
alone  as  they  did,  miles  from  a  doctor,  and  neighbors  not  near, 
and  could  get  along  without  alcoholics  of  any  kind,  everybody 
can  do  the  same  everywhere.  And  the  doctor  finally  wore  out 
his  heart  trouble  and  died  of  another  disease." — Pacific  Ensign. 

An  English  weekly  journal  is  responsible  for  the 
following  anecdote : — 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  419 

"  A  Birmingham  physician  has  had  an  amusing  experience. 
The  other  day  a  somewhat  distracted  mother  brought  her 
daughter  to  see  him.  The  girl  was  suffering  from  what  is 
known  among  people  as  '  general  lowness.'  There  was  nothing 
much  the  matter  with  her,  but  she  was  pale  and  listless  and  did 
not  care  about  eating  or  doing  anything.  The  doctor,  after 
due  consultation,  prescribed  for  her  a  glass  of  claret  three 
times  a  day  with  her  meals.  The  mother  was  somewhat  deaf, 
but  apparently  heard  all  he  said  and  bore  off  her  daughter,  de- 
termined to  carry  out  the  prescription  to  the  very  letter.  In  ten 
days'  time  they  were  back  again,  and  the  girl  looked  a  different 
creature.  She  was  rosy-cheeked,  smiling  and  the  picture  of 
health.  The  doctor  congratulated  himself  on  his  diagnosis  of 
the  case.  '  I  am  glad  to  see  that  your  daughter  is  so  much 
better,'  he  said.  *  Yes,'  exclaimed  the  excited  and  grateful 
mother.  '  Thanks  to  you,  doctor  !  She  has  had  just  what  you 
ordered.  She  has  eaten  carrots  three  times  a  day  since  we 
were  here,  and  sometimes  oftener — and  once  or  twice  uncooked 
— and  now  look  at  her  ! '  " 

The  Rest  Cure  : — "  After  all,  the  veneer  of  civilization  is 
quite  thin.  Scratch  most  people,  and  very  near  the  surface  you 
come  on  the  savage.  This  is  specially  true  when  they  are  sick. 
They  at  once  want  charms  and  miracles  to  restore  them  to 
health,  and  come  to  the  doctor— or  '  medicine  man,'  as  they 
look  upon  him — with  this  demand  :  '  I  want  something,  doctor, 
to  fix  me  up.'  But  he,  unhappy  man,  has  not  wherewith  to 
satisfy  them,  unless  he  is  a  quack. 

"  He  knows  that  in  most  cases  all  he  can  do  is  to  give  advice 
as  to  how  best  Nature  may  be  allowed  to  effect  a  cure  ;  for  Na- 
ture is  the  great  physician,  and  the  doctor's  main  duty  is  to  stand 
by  and  see  that  she  gets  fair  play.  Nature's  chief  cure,  in  a 
large  number  of  the  diseases  to  which  flesh  is  heir,  is  rest. 
The  tired  man  needs  rest.  The  tired  brain,  the  tired  stomach, 
the  tired  liver  and  kidneys,  need  the  same  rest. 


420  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

"  So,  when  the  patient  turns  up  with  an  overworked  and  ex- 
hausted organ  of  some  sort  within  him — be  it  what  it  may — 
heart,  brain  or  stomach— the  true  physician  prescribes,  first  and 
chiefly,  not  drugs,  but  rest. 

"  Now,  this  is  generally  the  advice  the  patient  doesn't  want. 
His  desire  is  for  a  bottle  of  something,  no  matter  how  nasty  it 
may  be,  which  shall  '  fix  him  up,'  and  let  him  go  on  doing  what 
he  has  been  doing  previously.  Common-sense  is  always  at  a 
discount,  and  never  more  so  than  in  this  case.  k  The  tired  brain- 
worker  doesn't  want  to  stop.  Give  him  something  to  whip  up 
his  brain  and  his  body,  something  to  drive  the  spurs  into  them. 
*  What  I  want,'  he  says,  '  is  a  really  strong  tonic  ' ;  though,  if  he 
knew  that  before,  what  was  the  use  of  coming  to  the  doctor  ? 
Or  he  would  like  to  be  told  to  take  a  glass  of  whisky-and- 
water  when  he  is  tired,  which  is  the  maddest  and  most  disas- 
trous advice  that  could  be  given. 

"  The  man  who  has  been  ill-treating  his  stomach,  eating  too 
much  or  too  well,  also  demands  a  tonic — something  to  give  him 
an  appetite  so  that  he  may  eat  more.  And  his  poor  over- 
wrought stomach  is  all  the  time  crying  out  for  rest. 

"  So  it  is  all  along  the  line.  The  possessor  of  an  inflamed  and 
swollen  knee  prays  for  a  liniment  to  rub  into  it  which  will  cure 
it  straight  away,  and  is  highly  disgusted  when  told  that  he  will 
have  to  lie  up  for  a  week  or  two. 

"  Again,  for  the  tired  stomach  the  cure  is  starvation.  Let 
the  person  live  on  his  own  fat,  and  a  little  milk-and-water  for  a 
few  days,  and  his  stomach  will  take  courage  again  and  return 
to  work  with  renewed  zest.  But  it  is  the  most  difficult  thing  in 
the  world  to  persuade  the  patient  or  his  kind  relatives  of  the 
truth  of  this.  There  are  many  diseases  in  which,  for  a  short 
time  at  least,  the  less  food  the  sick  person  has  the  better.  But 
the  relatives  are  always  much  wiser  than  the  doctor.  They  in- 
sist « that  the  strength  must  be  kept  up,'  and  would  like  to  force 
the  patient  to  eat  more  than  he  does  when  well.     '  You  will  let 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  42 1 

his  strength  down,  doctor,'  is  a  common  complaint,  and  one  of 
the  difficulties  hospital  authorities  have  to  face  is  to  prevent 
kind  friends  from  smuggling  in  food  to  the  inmates,  wno,  in 
their  opinion,  are  being  brutally  starved. 

"  I  myself  have  cured  people  by  making  them  rest — lie  in  bed 
and  starve.  But  the  next  time  they  were  sick,  /wasn't  the 
doctor. — "  Physician  "  in  Our  Federation. 

"  The  blessings  of  sunlight  and  fresh  air  should  be  more  ap- 
preciated. The  sun  is  the  godfather  of  us  all.  The  source  of 
all  light,  heat,  electricity  and  energy,  what  wonder  that  it  was 
once  worshipped  as  the  Creator.  The  future  will  recognize  it 
not  only  as  the  best  disinfectant,  an  all  powerful  preventive  of 
disease,  but  also  as  a  wonderful  healer  of  disease.  The  more 
people  can  be  taught  to  live  in  pure  air  out  of  doors,  and  bask 
in  the  rays  of  the  sun,  the  less  of  disease  there  will  be  to  pre- 
vent."—Dr.  C.  H.  Shepard,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

ALCOHOL   TESTED. 

11  Some  years  ago  Dr.  Beddoes,  a  physician  of  eminence,  was 
very  anxious  to  put  to  the  test  the  disputed  question  as  to  the 
power  of  alcoholic  liquors  to  give  strength  to  the  system.  He 
discovered  that  those  who  had  most  calls  upon  their  physical 
endurance  were  the  smiths  who  were  engaged  in  forging  ship's 
anchors,  for  at  one  moment  they  would  be  exposed  to  a  heat  so 
fierce  that  one  marveled  that  any  human  organization  could  en- 
dure exposure  to  it,  and  then  their  work  would  call  them  away 
to  a  temperature  that  was  chilly  and  cold,  added  to  which  all 
the  time  their  work  lasted  they  were  bathed  in  a  profuse  per- 
spiration, the  demands  upon  their  physical  energy  were  so 
great.  To  counteract  this  perpetual  drain  upon  their  system 
they  were  in  the  habit  of  drinking  unlimited  quantities  of  beer, 
which  their  masters  provided  for  them  as  a  matter  of  course, 
and  a  sine  qua  non.  One  day,  as  they  were  resting  from  their 
work  at  midday,  Dr.  Beddoes  made  his  appearance  amongst 
some  of  these  men  who  were  employed  in  a  certain  foundry, 


422  ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE. 

and  submitted  a  formal  proposition  to  them,  to  this  effect,  that 
twelve  of  their  number,  the  strongest  and  stanchest,  should  be 
selected  for  an  experiment,  and  they  should  work  for  a  week, 
six  of  them  drinking  only  water,  and  the  other  six  taking  their 
beer  as  usual.  His  proposition  was  laughed  to  scorn.  The 
men  would  not  hear  of  it.  *  Look  here,  mate,'  said  their 
spokesman,  '  do  you  want  us  to  be  all  dead  men ;  you  don't 
know  what  our  work  is,  and  how  it  takes  all  a  man's  strength 
to  weld  an  anchor.  Why,  if  we  did  not  have  our  beer  and 
plenty  of  it,  it  would  be  all  up  with  us  in  a  brace  of  shakes.' 

"  The  doctor  said  :  '  I  should  be  very  sorry  for  any  harm  to 
come  to  you.  You  know  I  am  a  doctor,  and  I  will  be  con- 
stantly at  hand  to  see  if  any  of  you  are  going  wrong,  and  I 
promise  that  if  I  see  any  of  you  breaking  down  I  will  at  once 
stop  my  experiment.'  And  then  taking  out  of  his  pocket  ten 
crisp  five-pound  notes,  he  displayed  them  to  the  anchor  smiths. 
'  I  will  put  down  these  notes,  ^50  in  all ;  six  of  you  shall  try 
water  for  one  week  honestly  and  fairly ;  if  you  pull  through 
without  giving  in,  the  £$0  shall  be  yours  ;  if  not,  I'll  take  the 
^50  back  again.     Is  it  a  bargain  ?  ' 

"  This  clenched  the  matter,  and  very  soon  the  doctor's  offer 
was  accepted,  and  a  gang  of  six  men  volunteered  to  begin 
their  work  on  the  Monday  without  beer.  The  beer  drinkers 
did  their  best  to  chaff  the  water  drinkers,  and  aggravated  them 
by  taking  good  care  to  show  them  how  very  nice  it  was  to  have 
recourse  to  unlimited  beer.  The  water  drinkers  kept  firm,  and 
the  first  day,  to  their  astonishment,  found  that  they  could  do 
just  as  much  work  as  the  rest  of  their  mates.  On  Tuesday  the 
water  drinkers  began  to  crow  over  the  beer  drinkers,  for  they 
found  that,  while  the  latter  complained  and  grumbled  at  the 
heat,  they  were  enabled  to  take  the  work  in  a  philosophical 
kind  of  way.  Wednesday,  Thursday  and  Friday  wore  away, 
and  the  teetotal  band  became  more  and  more  triumphant,  the 
laugh  was  all  on  their  side,  for  not  only  did  they  feel  more 
comfortable  than  their  beer-loving  companions,   but  the   ^50 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  423 

came  nearer  and  nearer,  and  at  last,  on  Saturday,  when  the 
time  for  finishing  work  came,  they  threw  down  their  tools  and 
their  hammers,  and  crowded  up  to  the  doctor  to  claim  the 
prize,  and  to  give  a  faithful  record  of  their  experiences  ;  and 
one  and  all  declared  that  they  had  done  their  hard  work  with 
more  ease  and  comfort  to  themselves  than  ever  it  had  been 
done  before,  and,  instead  of  feeling  tired  and  jaded,  as  they 
often  did  on  the  Saturday  afternoon,  they  were  quite  ready  to 
begin  work  again,  and  if  the  doctor  had  another  ^50  to  dispose 
of,  they  would  most  gladly  give  him  a  chance  of  protracting  his 
experiment  for  another  week.  The  doctor  expressed  himself 
perfectly  satisfied  with  the  trial  which  had  already  taken  place, 
and  left  the  place  amidst  three  hearty  cheers,  while  the  men 
proceeded  to  discuss  the  ins  and  outs  of  the  matter  among 
themselves." — National  Advocate. 

ALCOHOLISM  IN   CHILDREN. 

"  Dr.  Goriatchkine  has  made  a  very  interesting  report  on  this 
subject  to  the  Moscow  Society  of  Paediatrics.  He  has  seen 
quite  a  number  of  cases  of  ethylism,  not  only  among  the  poor 
and  working  classes,  where,  unhappily,  the  example  is  often 
set  by  the  father  of  the  family  or  by  the  fellow-workers,  but 
also  in  families  belonging  to  the  higher  classes. 

"  The  author  cites,  as  an  example,  the  history  of  a  little  girl 
of  five  years,  who  often  partook  of  cognac,  of  malaga,  and  of 
port  wines.  The  use  of  spirits  began  when  she  was  two  years 
of  age,  on  the  advice  of  a  physician  who  was  treating  her. 
By  little  and  little  the  child  has  become  accustomed  to  this 
treatment,  and  actually  she  takes  two  small  glasses  of  port  and 
a  teaspoonful  of  cognac  each  day.  The  child  is  anaemic,  has 
restless  sleep  with  nocturnal  terrors,  and  the  liver  and  the 
spleen  are  hypertrophied.  In  other  cases  the  intoxication  was 
more  manifest,  and  showed  the  ordinary  signs  of  chronic 
alcoholism. 

"  In  order  to  estimate  the  frequence  of  alcoholism  in  children 


424  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

and  the  causes  which  explain  it,  Goriatchkine  has  questioned 
the  parents  of  all  the  children  that  he  has  had  occasion  to  see 
in  consultation  at  Saint  Olga's  Hospital.  In  four  months  he 
has  been  able  to  collect  information  of  one  thousand,  six  hun- 
dred and  seventy-one  children  (eight  hundred  and  forty-one 
boys  and  eight  hundred  and  thirty  girls)  from  one  to  twelve 
years  of  age ;  of  this  number  five  hundred  and  six  children 
(two  hundred  and  eighty-two  boys  and  two  hundred  and 
twenty-four  girls), — that  is  to  say,  about  one-third, — take  alco- 
hol, either  as  a  result  of  their  environment  or  (in  half  the  cases) 
upon  the  advice  of  a  physician.  This  abuse  often  commences 
in  the  first  year.  The  author  is  convinced  that,  if  there  are  so 
many  alcoholics  among  the  children,  it  is  in  a  great  degree  the 
fault  of  physicians  who  habitually  prescribe  the  various  forms 
of  alcohol,  either  to  stimulate  the  appetite  or  for  other  objects. 
Children  thus  frequently  receive  different  preparations  (vermi- 
fuges, diarrhoea  remedies,  etc. )  in  alcoholic  infusion. 

"  However,  in  the  great  majority  of  cases,  alcohol  is  not  in- 
dispensable, and  ought  to  be  replaced  by  other  substances.  In 
all  cases  the  utility  of  alcohol  is  far  from  demonstrated.  In 
prescribing  alcohol,  the  habit  may  be  formed,  the  need  of  an 
excitant  may  be  felt,  and  in  predisposed  children,  the  issue  of 
alcoholic  parents,  the  alcoholic  diathesis  created  by  the  alco- 
holism of  the  parents,  and  remaining  until  that  time  in  a  latent 
state,  may  often  be  awakened. 

"  The  administration  of  alcohol  in  chronic  troubles  of  nutri- 
tion, to  ?  give  strength '  to  the  child,  appears  to  be  not  only 
useless,  but  even  dangerous,  on  account  of  the  need  which  it 
creates.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  known  authentic  case 
in  which  alcohol  shall  have  rendered  real  service.  The  fact 
that  for  the  past  six  years  alcohol  has  been  used  only  in  cases 
of  extreme  urgence  at  Saint  Olga's  Hospital  (Moscow),  is  a 
proof  of  the  manner  in  which  one  may  omit  it  in  medicine. 

"  Therefore,  the  author  advises  strongly,  in  accord  with 
Strumpell  and  Smith,  to  avoid  prescribing  alcohol  as  much  as 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  425 

possible,  and  to  oppose  the  parents  with  all  one's  power  if  they 
try  to  make  children  take  it,  under  whatever  pretext." — The 
Charlotte  Medical  Journal. 

don't  give  brandy. 

The  moral  effect  of  early  acquaintance  with  sci- 
entific truth  is  illustrated  by  a  little  story  which  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Plumb  tells  in  the  Boston   Transcript. 

A  millionare  brewer,  a  senator  in  another  state, 
said  to  Mrs.  Hunt : — 

"  I  shall  vote  for  your  bill.  I  have  sold  out  my  brewery,  and 
I  am  clean  from  the  whole  business.  Let  me  tell  you  what 
occurred  at  my  table.  A  guest  was  taken  dangerously  ill  at 
dinner—  insensible — and  there  was  a  call  for  brandy  to  restore 
him.  My  little  boy  at  once  exclaimed  :  ■  No,  that  is  just  what 
he  doesn't  need  !  It  will  paralyze  the  nerves  and  muscles  of 
the  blood-vessels  so  they  will  not  send  back  the  blood  to  the 
heart.' 

".  When  the  liquor  was  poured  out  to  give  the  man,  the  lad 
insisted  on  pushing  it  back. 

"  '  You  will  kill  him  ;  he  has  too  much  blood  in  his  head  aU 
ready. ' 

"  '  How  do  you  know  all  that  ?  '  his  father  afterwards  asked. 

"  •  Why,  it  is  in  my  physiology  at  school.' 

"  It  seems  the  text-books,  prepared  by  such  men  as  Prof. 
Newell  Martin,  F.  R.  S.,  of  Johns  Hopkins  University,  had  suc- 
ceeded in  giving  the  lad  some  definite  information  which  had 
proved  useful." 

"  Senator,"  said  Mrs.  Hunt,  "  are  you  sorry  your  boy  learned 
that  at  school  ?  " 

"  Madame,"  the  man  replied,  raising  his  hand,  "  I  would  not 
take  five  thousand  dollars  for  the  assurance  this  gives  me  that 
my  boy  will  never  be  a  drunkard." 


426  ALCOHOL  AS   A    MEDICINE. 

Universal  Reduction  in  Quantity  :— "  The  adminis- 
tration of  alcohol  in  pauper  institutions  affords  remarkable 
evidence  of  the  great  change  that  has  passed  over  the  public 
mind,  both  lay  and  professional,  in  recent  years  in  favor  of  the 
strictest  moderation  in  the  use  of  alcoholic  stknulants,  if  not  of 
their  abandonment,  either  as  a  beverage  or  as  a  medicine. 
The  trend  as  recorded  in  Government  returns  both  of  medical 
officers'  prescription  and  of  poor  law  guardians'  allowance  of 
spirits,  wine  and  malt  liquor  has  been  steadily  towards  a 
diminution  of  the  supply  of  intoxicants.  So  marked  is  this 
reduction  that  it  is  the  first  thing  that  strikes  an  investigator  of 
statistics  relating  to  intoxicants  in  workhouses.  Twenty-six 
years  ago  the  paupers'  drink  bill  for  England  and  Wales  stood 
at  ^82,000,  from  which  large  amount  successive  returns  have 
shown  that  it  shrunk  27  per  cent,  in  10  years  ;  25  per  cent, 
again  in  the  next  four  years ;  again  23  per  cent,  in  six  years ; 
and  finally  4^  per  cent,  in  two  years  until  it  stood  five  years  ago 
at  £,32>000>  this  being  a  reduction  of  60  per  cent.,  or  a  total  of 
.£50,000,  since  which  no  general  figures  are  avaible." — Medical 
Teitiperance  Review. 

"  Another  thing  in  which  it  is  most  desirable  that  the  public 
should  be  enlightened,  is  the  imperative  need  of  rest,  instead  of 
what  is  called  stimulation;  that  what  are  called  tonics  or 
stimulants  are  used  only  at  a  ruinous  expense  to  the  vitality, 
and  if  people  would  take  time  for  recreation  and  recuperation, 
they  would  obviate  the  necessity  for  their  use  and  prevent 
more  disease  than  ever  was  cured. 

"  There  is  an  immense  amount  of  ignorance  abroad  in  the 
community  on  the  subject  of  health  and  the  proper  way  of 
living  to  secure  the  best  physical  condition,  and  there  is  a  cor- 
responding need  for  instruction  in  such  matters.  That  is  why 
the  charlatan  has  such  free  play  in  this  country.  One  of  the 
most  important  of  all  studies  for  young  and  old  is  that  of  per- 
sonal hygiene.  This  it  is  that  protects  from  personal  contagion. 
This  do  and  thou  shalt  live  !    That  do  and  thy  body  shall  be- 


ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE.  427 

come  a  fertile  breeding  ground  for  all  manner  of  disease !  The 
earlier  in  life  this  is  recognized  the  more  surely  will  success 
crown  man's  daily  pursuits." — Dr.  Chas.  H.  Shepard,  Brook- 
lyn, N.  Y. 

Most  of  us  are  near  relatives  to  the  old  darkey 
who  told  the  doctor  she  had  "  given  that  ar  chile 
enough  medicine  to  kill  a  horse,  and  she  haint  well 
yit." 

BRANDY — THAT   "  INFALLIBLE  "    REMEDY. 

"  A  little  girl  was  very  ill.  She  was  a  child  of 
thorough  abstainers  who  allowed  no  intoxicating 
drink  to  enter  their  house.  The  doctor  had  wanted 
for  some  time  to  prescribe  stimulants,  and  at  last,  as 
she  grew  worse,  he  insisted,  and  said  that  she  must 
take  brandy  to  save  her  life.  '  You  would  not  let 
your  child  die  before  your  eyes,'  he  said,  angrily  to 
her  father.  '  You  would  not  surely  let  your  child 
die  for  the  sake  of  your  foolish  fad  ! ' 

"  The  father  thought  it  over  ;  should  he  bring  in 
the  hateful  drink,  or  should  he  let  his  child  die,  as 
the  doctor  had  said,  for  want  of  it  ?  Most  reluc- 
tantly he  went  and  fetched  some  brandy,  and  took 
it  upstairs  to  his  wife,  and  told  her  he  had  consented 
to  give  it  to  the  child. 

"  '  Have  you  ?  '  she  exclaimed,  with  horror.  '  But 
I  have  not ; '  and  with  a  firm  hand  she  put  it  away 
into  the  cupboard. 

"  At  the  doctor's  next  visit  he  found  the  little  girl 
much  better. 


428  ALCOHOL  AS   A   MEDICINE. 

"  '  So  you  got  the  brandy  ? '  he  said,  turning  to 
the  father. 

"  '  Yes,  sir,  I  got  it,'  he  replied,  looking  down  to 
hide  a  smile. 

"  •  Ha,  yes  ;  and  you  see  the  effect.  It  was  just 
the  turning-point.  If  you  had  not  got  that  brandy 
your  child  would  have  been  dead,  and  now  I  have 
every  hope  of  saving  her.'  The  brandy  remained 
in  the  cupboard  and  the  child  got  well,  but  they 
did  not  venture  to  tell  the  doctor  what  they  had 
done  with  his  prescription. 

"  It  was  1 1  years  after  this  that  the  mother  was 
taken  dangerously  ill.  A  teetotal  doctor  had  set  up 
in  the  place  a  short  time  before,  and  they  sent  for 
him.  After  examining  his  patient,  he  said  to  her 
daughter,  '  I  do  not  often  prescribe  stimulants,  but 
this  is  a  case  which  requires  it.  You  must  get  your 
mother  a  little  brandy/ 

"  The  daughter  remembered  her  own  case.  She 
was  but  a  girl  of  19,  but  she  ventured  to  say  to  him,. 
*  I  think  you  are  mistaken,  doctor.' 

"  ■  What  ?  '  he  asked,  not  believing  his  ears. 

"'  I  cannot  give  mother  brandy,'  she  replied  in  a 
trembling  voice. 

"  '  Indeed  !     Then  I  shall  speak  to  your  father.' 

"  He  went  downstairs  and  told  the  father  in  per- 
emptory tones,  '  You  must  get  some  brandy  for 
your  wife.  She  needs  it  absolutely  to  save  her 
life.' 


ALCOHOL  AS  A   MEDICINE.  429 

11  But  his  former  experience  had  made  the  father 
brave.  *  No,  sir,'  he  said,  sturdily.  '  If  I  had 
wanted  a  brandy  doctor  I  should  not  have  sent  for 
you  ;  begging  your  pardon,  sir.' 

"And  as  her  daughter  had  done  11  years  before, 
she  got  well — without  the  brandy." — Medical  Tem- 
perance Review, 


,,        OF  the  ^ 


The  True  Science  of  Living 

or  The  New  Gospel  of  Health. 

By  Edward  Hooker  Dewey,  M.  D.     Introduction  by- 
Rev.  Geo.  F.  Pentecost,  D.  D. 


A  New  Era  for  Woman 

or  Health  Without  Drugs. 

By  same  author.   Introduction  by  Alice  McClellan  Birney, 

President  of  the    National  Congress 

of  Mothers. 


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drugs,  or  any  treatment  involving  expense. 


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N.  L.  Bishop,  Supt.  of  Schools,  Norwich,  Ct. 


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